


beyond the divide and into adventure

by CiaranthePage



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Adjusting to a new dimension as you do, Adventure & Romance, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, F/F, Gen, M/M, Mutual Pining, Occasional appearances from other canon characters but they're like easter eggs, Original Universe, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Alternating, POV Second Person, Prophetic Visions, Tags Are Hard, i've stolen the parts from canon i liked and made a run for it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:34:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 38,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24622495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CiaranthePage/pseuds/CiaranthePage
Summary: June always thought her long-distance friends were joking when they talked about magic powers and crystalline horns, or about receiving visions of the future or being able to turn into a giant wolf. That their hesitance to share their addresses was regular human caution or some strange embarrassment. That the fact that she could only communicate with them through an app nobody else could ever seem to find was just some weird quirk of her grandpa's technology. But maybe, it turns out, there's a lot more to the universe than meets the eye.A peculiar set of circumstances, a long-whispered prophecy, a house of divine beings. A chance encounter with a rip between worlds sends everything into motion.You have a feeling it's going to be a long day.
Relationships: Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas, Rose Lalonde/Kanaya Maryam, Terezi Pyrope/Vriska Serket
Comments: 26
Kudos: 51





	1. > June: Go on an afternoon walk

**Author's Note:**

> greetings, my dear reader! thanks for checking out my work : D this is based in my original fantasy universe, and i'm glad to have you around for the ride!! i hope you enjoy reading this as much as i love writing about it!
> 
> additionally, a heads up: i haven't read the epilogues or hs^2, and as such 1. i will not be (purposefully) referencing characters, ideas, or plot points from either of those, and 2. the equivalent of those "all resemblance is purely coincidental" warnings but for that content. i may, however, reference things from hiveswap, friendsim, or pesterquest, though not in amounts that would need a spoiler warning unless otherwise specified!!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> June takes an afternoon walk to clear her head, like countless afternoons before. Things don't quite go to plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> quick shout out to [this tutorial](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5391818/chapters/12454586) for help with the persterlogs, lol  
> (and a note that i might end up shifting around tags as we go, because i can never remember how tags work)

You like afternoon walks. They’re a chance to get out of the house, stretch your legs, think about nothing in particular, explore the neighborhood. Feel the breeze in your hair, which you’ve been growing out and looks great blowing in the wind, if you do say so yourself. A moment of peace in the middle of a busy schedule.

At least, they’re _usually_ moments of peace.

Something ahead catches your eye, light where there shouldn’t be light and the feeling in your bones that you get before it rains (which everyone claims is an old person thing, but you’ve never been wrong about an oncoming storm, so obviously it can’t be). Every lesson Dad gave you before you moved out tells you to leave it alone, but something tugs you toward it, as if the light is calling out for help. For help from you specifically. Maybe Dad had a point, that's weird.

Your feet disagree and carry you toward the light. Okay. This is fine.

(It’s not, but you pretend you can’t hear that thought.)

Your phone starts going off the closer you get to the light, ringing with notifications despite it supposedly being on silent. You stop, just a few feet away, to pull it out of your pocket. There aren’t nearly as many notifications as the sounds suggested, but there are still more than you’ve ever had at once before (which is a thought that makes you frown a little bit, rubbing in the fact that you haven’t been great at making friends in your recent college classes). You open a Pesterchum chat from Dave that seems more urgent than you even knew Dave could be.

turntechGodhead [TG] began pestering  ectoBiologist [EB]

TG: hey june

TG: if you see any weird shit today

TG: like weirder than usual i know you see weird shit all the time

TG: stay away from it

TG: theres some shit going down over here you dont want to get tangled up in just trust me on this

turntechGodhead [TG] ceased pestering  ectoBiologist [EB]

You roll your eyes. Your friends, the ones you can only reach through Pesterchum, always go on about how you’re supposed to ignore “weird shit” -- as if Jade doesn’t regularly joke about turning into a wolf or Rose complain about styling her hair around horns -- and being on the other side of some “barrier” they never explain. Something about you “being safer over there.” They sure are committed to their bit, and as an aspiring magician/prankster you can appreciate that, but the urgent messages right as you approach something weird is just ridiculous, as if they’re watching you or something. You open another message, this one from Jade.

gardenGnostic [GG] began pestering  ectoBiologist [EB]

GG: june, hey!!

GG: i think everyone else has already texted you today about steering clear of magic stuff but they probably wont explain a whole lot and i figured id do it!

GG: something went wrong with some maintenance spells over on our side of the divide and there might be people or spirits falling through. we dont want you to get hurt if something dangerous ends up in your city :(

GG: theyre focusing on the big rips to start but small ones are popping up all over the place

gardenGnostic [GG] ceased pestering  ectoBiologist [EB]

That makes even less sense than usual. You stick your free hand in your pocket, reading the messages over and over. “The Divide” is what you get caught on each time. None of them have ever mentioned a “divide” to you. Is that the barrier they’re always talking about? It’d make sense, sure, but why only bring it up now? Because there are supposedly holes in it? You hesitate, trying to form a few different responses before deleting all of them. Normally this shtick is funny, but there are messages from Rose waiting for you, too, and one from a name you don’t recognize, and it all just makes you… uneasy. The sensation of a rainstorm in your bones feels deeper, even though your weather app insists on clear skies all week.

Something grabs your ankle. It’s only pure practice that keeps your phone in your hand as you jump back. The light has split in two, the formless blob still where you originally saw it and a humanoid shape that has you by the right ankle. The shape tightens its grip on you, more and more arms splitting off of its main form and pulling on your ankle, your jeans, your shoes, trying to get up from where it’s lying on the ground. “Fuck!” is all you can manage as you shove your phone in your pocket and try to scramble away, kicking at the shape to dislodge it from your foot.

( _Help me_ , says a voice from nowhere.)

The shape doesn’t budge. Its grip tightens, and where the bulbous attempt at a head is eyes start to take shape. Two, three, four, five, six -- you lose count when staring at them starts to make you feel dizzy. Your kicks don’t land; your foot keeps phasing through its head even as you feel its grip tighten around your ankle. What the _fuck_ is this thing? What does it even _want_ with you? It’s… it’s definitely not human, which is a thought you almost miss in the panic. Jade said something about spirits. You can’t seem to force those two points together with the thing still clinging to your ankle.

( _Please_ , says the voice from nowhere. _Please, I am dying. I cannot survive here_.)

You want to say “get off of me” but what comes out of your mouth is a grunt of pain when you trip over air and fall backward, catching yourself before you can fall flat on your back. The shape still has you by the ankle, still won’t let go, but you watch as its additional arms seem to peel off, falling to the ground without a noise and dissipating into wind. Its grip weakens. You still, watching and trying not to pass out under the gaze of its countless eyes staring at you.

( _Help_.)

It collapses.

It collapses, all of its eyes close at once, and you will your legs to move. They refuse.

The shape starts to dissipate into blue… wind? It looks like a kid’s drawings of blue wind, but they don’t fly away. The wind maintains a shape for a moment. And then it feels like someone punches you in the stomach.

( _You are my only hope. I am sorry_.)

The wind swirls around you, picking up your hair and your cropped hoodie and your glasses. It picks up speed, faster, faster, faster, around and around and you can’t get up, you can’t even reach for your phone because you’re too busy bracing yourself against the wind. The wind gets closer, closer, your vision is crowded with blue, your mouth is full of something but it’s not air, not the right kind of air, and --

And when you open your eyes you feel different.

It’s not a different you’re used to. You’ve had times where your entire perception about yourself changed -- hell, the cropped hoodie you have on was a find and a half, seeing yourself in it for the first time was a big event -- but this feels like your entire stomach was flipped upside down and left to drain. You manage to stumble to your feet and, leaning up against the fence, pull your phone out of your pocket. Your head starts to spin, but you text the only person thus far to answer your questions.

ectoBiologist [EB] began pestering  gardenGnostic [GG]

EB: jade, i have a question.

EB: if i maybe i didn’t get your messages until just a few minutes ago, ran into something from you guys’ supposed side of the “divide,” and then absorbed it, what would i do about that?

EB: theoretically of course.

Absorbed seems like the right word. You don’t know why, but it does. The spinning gets worse, and you slide down the fence, sitting on the ground. It doesn’t feel like _you’re_ dying, but that maybe something inside you is, and you don’t know if that’s any better.

GG: please tell me you did not just send that message D:

EB: okay i won’t.

GG: june this is not the time for jokes! you could be in actual serious danger right now!!

Your vision swims and you turn your screen off on instinct. Jade was typing more, and you feel your phone buzz in your hand, but you don’t look in favor of putting your head between your knees. Shutting your eyes only minimizes the spinning, but it’s better than nothing. Your glasses threaten to slip down your nose; you stuff them in the small pocket on the front of your cropped hoodie to keep them safe. The sensation tightens, and you almost throw up, but before you can everything just... stops. Including you. There is a single, solitary second where every cell in your body stops. You don’t breathe, your heart does not beat, your stomach stops digesting. And then you let out an exhale, but the breath does not feel like it’s yours. Your body starts up again. You still feel different, but no longer do you feel like something in you is dying. Your phone tells you there are notifications waiting when you slip your glasses back on.

GG: june what did the thing look like?

GG: june???

GG: june please don’t do this :(

EB: sorry i think i was like, dying?

EB: or that thing was dying inside me? it was kind of unclear but i’m alive!

GG: dying??

EB: this weird humanoid blob made of light grabbed me by the ankle, i thought it was going to kill me but i’m pretty sure it just died in front of me instead?

GG: oh

GG: what… happened after that?

EB: jade, if i can be completely honest with you, i think i ate it on accident.

There’s a long pause. And Jade isn’t even the first person who responds; Rose messages you again, reminding you of the backlog you didn’t get to read. There’s a pressure building in your stomach, but you ignore it to see what she’s saying.

tentacleTherapist [TT] began pestering  ectoBiologist [EB]

TT: June, we’ve heard some rumors going around about strange activity near the Divide, you should probably stay home today.

TT: You always seem to attract the strangest things and I don’t want you to get hurt.

TT: Jade just told me that you’ve gotten yourself tangled up with a spirit, then. Can you tell me what it looked like?

EB: hi to you too, rose!

EB: it just looked like a weird mannequin if you ask me, no hair or distinguishing features until it started growing way too many eyes and arms.

EB: it turned into a weird blue wind and disappeared though.

TT: A blue wind? Assuming the worst, that was what you ate?

EB: how’d you guess?

TT: I have my methods. Which unfortunately don’t do very much for us from here.

TT: If you can still see where it entered your world, go toward that rip, I have a feeling someone will be nearby that can grab you before you explode.

EB: i’m sorry explode????

EB: no rose you can’t leave me on read with a sentence like that!!!!

tentacleTherapist [TT] ceased pestering  ectoBiologist [EB]

She does. The pressure in your stomach builds. You manage to get to much steadier two feet, watching your phone to see if anyone else is planning to text you that you’re in mortal peril. No messages come. Cool. You’re on your own the precise moment that you need someone to help you out, because either this is a really good prank or your friends haven’t been exaggerating the other times they told you to stay away from weird shit to keep you from dying. With a building pressure in your stomach and the word “explode” stuck behind your eyelids, you don’t like either of those options.

Rose told you to go toward where the thing entered “your” world. The light up against a fence still glitters in the afternoon light. Is that it? It seems like a good candidate for --

You go to take a step forward and it feels like the wind blows up under you to carry you a few steps toward the light. Oh, oh cool, magic! Haha, real funny, guys! You try to say that part out loud and nothing comes out of your mouth, nor do your lips move an inch. You start to feel nauseous. But the wind kicks up, smelling like ozone and freshly cut grass. You try to take another step. The wind lifts you up, up! Up high enough that you pray nobody sees you! And then back down, right in front of the spinning gate of light. The wind nudges you forward, pushing at your back toward the light. All at once, things start snapping back into focus: your classes, your dad, your apartment, you can’t just _leave_ and go into a gate that leads _who knows where_ on the advice of even your closest friends! You try to turn around, to move back toward your house, but at the same time your vision gets thrown into a lava lamp, a hand grabs yours and pulls you through the gate. Your consciousness doesn’t see fit to follow you through.

When you come to, you’re staring at two blurry faces, five eyes and eight pupils, a count that makes you wonder for a second if you’re dreaming. Especially since all eight pupils are condensed into three of the five visible eyes, the other two completely glossed over red.

“Finally,” says the woman with three eyes.

“She’s only been out a few minutes,” counters the person with red eyes. “I seem to remember that after you became unstuck --”

“Shut up, Terezi,” says the woman, punching her companion in the arm. “That’s different.”

“Than absorbing an entire spirit? Not particularly.”

They come clearer into view as a weight in your chest lifts when the person with red eyes mentions a spirit. The woman with three eyes, standing to your left, is pale, with long blonde hair and eyes that are three different shades of cerulean blue; she’s wearing a big-ass blue coat one could generously describe as “pirate cosplay” and a hat that you _think_ is called a tricorn hat, with a big veil hanging off the back and down her neck. The person on your right, with the red eyes -- Terezi, probably -- you almost call gray-skinned, but no, there’s a teal flush to them that you don’t quite understand, her hair cut into a straight black bob in a way that’s distinctly safety scissors-esque; they’re dressed more appropriately for the warm sun beaming down on your face, with an undone button-up in colors too harsh to describe thrown over a green tank top and shorts. There’s a cane in the grass next to your head that you trace up to be supporting Terezi’s weight.

“Welcome back to being awake,” says Terezi. “This is Vriska, I’m Terezi, and you almost died.”

Vriska goes to put her hands on her hips, looks at Terezi, and then stretches out a hand to you. You take it with less hesitance than you probably should and let her pull you to your (thankfully) stable feet. A quick glance around puts you… nowhere you’ve ever seen. Big, green, gently rolling hills stretch out all around you, with a big house at the bottom of the hill you’re all standing on. The gate of light that led you here is nowhere to be seen, and the sun seems higher in the sky than you remember it being. As if time is passing differently. Maybe it is.

“...I’m June,” you say after realizing that Vriska is staring at you.

“Nice to meet you, June,” Vriska says. She spins around, billowing her jacket outward and facing the direction of the house. “Glad you’re not dead, blah blah blah, what’s important is that --”

“Actually, can we circle back to that part?” you say, twirling a finger to emphasize your point. “Rose and Jade were saying that, too, why _exactly_ was I about to die?”

Vriska looks at Terezi (it’s both nauseating and fascinating to watch her pupils all move in tandem; four are gathered in her right eye, with two pupils in each of her two left eyes), who shrugs. “Ask them,” Terezi says. “I’m sure they’ll be more than happy to answer your questions now that you’re not in immediate danger of blowing up.”

“As I was saying,” Vriska coughs. “The important part is that I --”

“We,” Terezi interrupts.

Vriska rolls her eyes. “ _We_ saved your life, but we have somewhere to be. So if you’ll just follow me.”

She starts strolling down the hill with her hands grasped very purposefully behind her back. Terezi snickers and motions you to follow. You do, though a foot behind so you can pull out your phone and start texting… Rose? Yeah, she was the one who told you to find the portal.

ectoBiologist [EB] began pestering  tentacleTherapist [TT]

EB: so i did what you said!

EB: you were right, somebody pulled me through before i exploded or whatever

EB: and i still want an answer about that

EB: vriska and terezi? i think that’s how you spell their names? do you know them?

TT: Oh thank the Belltower, I wasn’t sure if you’d made it!

TT: I… do, albeit not well. I think I see you three coming, actually.

tentacleTherapist [TT] ceased pestering  ectoBiologist [EB]

You look up. There are three figures standing in the grass in front of the weird house, huddled together. You haven’t seen many pictures of your friends, you realize, but that doesn’t matter, because your heart seems to realize who they are before your brain can make the connection. You shove your phone in your pocket and run, run faster than you think you ever have, as if the wind is literally at your heels, passing Vriska (who you almost miss raise her eyebrows at your sudden pick up in speed) and Terezi, right into the very open arms of your best friends.

You’ll get around to questions later, you decide. What’s important now is seeing them, seeing your friends in person for the first time, and releasing the last bit of regret your heart was clinging onto.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey there, reader! a quick note:  
> i'm using the homestuck ao3 skin to properly color the pesterlogs, and while i'm using names in my document for ease i'm planning on going back in to format them more accurately later!  
> edit: so i have formatted the pesterlogs! depending on when i publish these, future chapters may also take a until sometime the next day (or later that day, as i tend to publish in the 2-3 am zone lol) to have properly formatted pesterlogs, but the text of the logs won't change once their published, so all you'll miss out on is the fun colors, lol  
> .  
> also june is trans, if you weren't already aware, it's probably not gonna like. come up in-text much but i wanted to make sure everyone was clear on the subject. and terezi is non-binary, hence the they/she pronouns! (i also [drew terezi!](https://www.deviantart.com/opalsweaterqt/art/Terezi-ft-Fantasy-AU-845115459))


	2. > Jade: Be reunited with your half-sister

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Friends are united, and then promptly have to take calls. Explanations are given, a camping tip is planned, and Jade enjoys the family reunion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> : 3 i'm back  
> and so soon, which is nice! we'll just have to see when the next chp is done, though, lol  
> also happy birthday karkat, who doesn't appear at all in this chp by some twist of fate (we'll see him soon, promise)

You hear June coming before you see her. You’ve never heard her footsteps before, sure, but after what Rose told you the unmistakable sound of a weather elemental punctuating someone running down a hill directly toward you checks out. So you turn to meet her, sweeping June up into a hug that rapidly becomes a group hug.

“You’re here!” you say, setting June back down, because wow she’s a lot shorter than you!

“I’m here, holy shit!” June’s eyes are wide with surprise, and you knew her eyes were blue before but they seem so much more vivid than in any of the selfies she ever sent. “I’m still kind of mad about the ‘not explaining why I was going to die’ thing, but I can’t believe I get to actually meet you guys in person!”

“I’m pretty sure we tried to offer a supervised visit in the past,” Rose reminds her, her smile almost triumphant if it wasn’t for the relief in her eyes. “And in our defense, if I’d taken the time to explain, the explanation would’ve been rather useless.”

June sticks her tongue out at Rose, hands on her hips, but she’s still smiling. “A supervised visit to a magic planet doesn’t count as getting to actually _see_ you guys,” she counters. “You can’t look me in the eye and tell me you guys don’t get up to cool magic adventures.”

You almost do so, just to mess with her, but you catch another sound. You feel yourself tense up, ears twitching. Rose and Dave lose some of the smile on their faces, and June looks between the three of you, confused. You try to zero in on it, try to… what?

“Dave, it’s coming from your bag?” you say.

Dave’s mouth flattens into a line. He puts his hand up and says something only half gibberish about “having to take this call” and walks off, leaving the three of you behind. “...okay.” June sticks her hands in her pockets, rocking back and forth on her feet. “So about the explosion comment.”

The tension lifts and Rose chuckles. “Magic beings can’t survive long in the mirror world, as I’m sure you noticed. I had to get across the urgency while saving some time,” she explains, shrugging. “It’s not too terribly far off from what might’ve happened, granted, but that was what I thought you’d understand.”

You put an arm around June’s shoulders as best as you can, which she seems happy to accept. “Considering your cool wind powers, you might not have _exploded_ ,” you say, and you feel June’s glare without having to look, “more like, turned into a big raincloud and caused a lightning storm.”

“I think erupting from a physical form to become a giant storm counts as exploding,” Rose says with a shrug.

“I dunno, there’s no combustion involved,” June says, putting a hand to her chin to think. “It’d be more dissolving than exploding.” You pretend not to notice that in her absentminded pondering, June has started to float closer to your height.

“That just comes down to semantics, then,” Rose says. “The purpose of the message was to get across urgency by referencing your possible doom in a way that you would understand despite your limited magical knowledge.”

“Hey, semantics can matter -- “ June’s phone interrupts her. She looks down at it, gasping. “My dad! I gotta… oh shit, how am I…?” She floats off, answering her phone, and you just hope she’ll figure out how to get down.

You do a quick check. Dave is sitting on the ground, now, with his back to you and Rose, holding something in his lap; June seems to have settled on top of the house, which you hope isn’t disrespectful; Rose hums a tuneless song, watching after her brother and friend.

“You know, I’m kind of glad our messages didn’t get through in time to stop her,” you say.

Rose gives you a smile, the one that’s mostly out of one side of her face, that means magic was involved. “They were never going to,” is her explanation.

You gasp, turning to face Rose with your hands on your hips. “You knew?!” is your only question. “I’ve been dying to meet June for _ages_! And I know we all have but we haven't even talked about --”

“The sisters thing, I assume?” She’s right, so you just stick out your lip. “And the answer to your first question is… Sort of? My visions can be… vague, and unhelpful if not taken into context, but I had a good feeling June would be joining us soon.”

This is why you never bother with future visions. Bec offered to teach you once, but every time Rose’s visions come up it just seems like a confusing and frustrating kind of magic. You’ll stick with manipulating the laws of physics.

“And how _are_ you going to broach the sisters topic?” Rose asks. “June said she never knew her biological father, just that he brought her the phone as a birthday gift.”

“Which was totally my idea,” you say. “But I haven’t really… thought that far ahead.”

It’ll be weird for both of you, you assume. You haven’t actually talked to Grandpa (you don’t think you’ll ever understand why he wants you to call him that, you remember for not the first nor last time) in a while, having been presuming him locked up in his house thinking about this or that. He knows June exists since he delivered her phone personally, but there’s every chance he didn’t pick up on the hint to actually go _see_ (who you assume to be) his youngest child. Or tell her that she has (at least) five half-siblings, including yourself. Or tell her that her bloodline traces back to the very magic world you’re standing on and she’s effortlessly floating above, which is one of the possible reasons why she always attracts magic even when there should be none around.

“I’m sure it’ll come up,” Rose answers your internal monologue. “We’ll help her adjust and then you can let your metaphorical cat out of the bag.”

"I won't even need a metaphorical cat if we visit your mom like we planned!" you say.

Rose laughs, covering her mouth when it comes out closer to a snort. You almost follow it up with another joke, but June comes sweeping down, doing a loop around your heads before… floating in the air in front of you, still, apparently comfortable at her new height. “Did I miss something?” she asks, hands in her pockets.

“Nothing important,” you say before Rose can get a word in. “What did your dad have to say?”

“He, uh, somehow knew I’d crossed through the portal?” She squints her eyes and sticks her lip out to emphasize the point, but then she smiles. “But he said he’d take care of my apartment and classes and stuff and gave me his usual, ‘I’m so proud of you’ spiel.”

The words sound like at some point they were bitter, but now June is just chuckling at the thought of the speech, and you can’t help but be happy for her. Growing up with Bec was great, and so were all of your fae friends, but some part of you will always be a little sad that you’ll never get quite the same bond as your friends with their parents; in the end, though, seeing your (technically) little sister (by _only a few months_ , she reminds you every time) happy with a family that raised her where everyone had the same faces all the time is all you could hope for her.

“Perhaps he has connections over here,” Rose offers. “I can’t say this is a particularly populated area, but anyone monitoring the rips would have noticed the big energy fluctuation when you arrived.” (There’s a silent, invisible glance your way; you wonder if it really is Grandpa.)

The gentle moo of a cow rolls over the hills as if to emphasize just how few people are in this area.

You thread your arm through June’s and she bobs up to meet your height, apparently subconsciously, which you’ll have to keep in mind. “Speaking of sparsely populated things,” you say, “we were supposed to be going camping! June, what do you say, a ‘welcome to the world’ camping trip?”

June thinks for a second, running her fingers through her hair. “If it were anyone but you guys, I’d say no, but it is, so why not? I’m going to be living on this planet forever, knowing my way around is kind of important.”

“We’ll have to make a stop by a town for some extra supplies,” Rose says, tapping a knitting needle she wasn't holding a second ago against her lip, “but shopping here is something you’ll need to learn as well.”

“Is it different than shopping in, what’d you call it, the mirror world?” June asks.

“Ohh yeah,” you say. "I mean, I only know what you and Jake have told us, but it sounds pretty different."

Rose shrugs her shoulders. “Well, it depends on where you go, but in general, yes. But the initial gathering of what we want shouldn’t be too different."

“Have _you_ ever gone shopping in the mirror world?” you ask, raising an eyebrow. “I thought you couldn’t cross the Divide for very long.”

Rose puts up a hand and opens her mouth, closes it, then repeats the motion two more times. “No,” she admits, “but I’ve heard people talk about it. People other than June, I mean."

June considers a few things, but before she can ask all of your phones go off at once; you look at June’s when she pulls it out of her pocket, realizing it’s a group text. You didn’t even know Pesterchum had a private group chat function.

turntechGodhead [TG] began pestering  ectoBiologist [EB], tentacleTherapist [TT], and gardenGnostic [GG]

TG: time and i are still having a feelings jam

TG: otherwise id just ask this like a normal person or whatever

TG: but i heard talk about shopping trips and metaphorical cats is there something important going on i should be aware of

TT: Nothing you don’t already know about, Dave. Does your divine know you’re texting in class?

TG: im sure they do but you think a divine hiding at the edge of the universe cares about me texting as long as i read their messages too

TG: were just chatting about the prophecy i was supposed to get apparently

EB: prophecy???

TG: yeah divines love prophecies

TG: theyre not really my jam ask rose about them

TG: its why i turned down that orange feathery dude in the first place

turntechGodhead [TG] ceased pestering  ectoBiologist [EB], tentacleTherapist [TT], and gardenGnostic [GG]

June looks at you, raising an eyebrow, and you shrug the shoulder not up against hers. Your feelings about prophecies are… well, already known. Rose and Dave have a lot more to do with them, being partially divine and each in service of a different divine being. You almost tell June all of that, but you prefer to leave divine stuff to the people who know what they’re talking about. You know physical magic and your innate magic, and you don’t care to get roped into anything else. Rose can explain Time and the Belltower and all that later.

“We should just pick him up and get going,” you say. “We don’t want to get too far behind schedule.”

“Or be in front of this House when they wake up,” Rose muses, looking at the house behind you; you’d almost forgotten this was a House of unstuck. “I’ve heard they’re quite friendly, but no one wants to wake up to a gaggle of hopeful campers talking away in your yard without a care in the world.”

“I could probably lift him,” June says, grinning, flexing her free arm.

“Not if I can do it first!” you say.

June unthreads your arms, her grin turning from just amusement to a challenge that you recognize in every bone in your body. She doesn’t even have to say “go” before you two race toward where Dave has taken up residence with his book in the middle of the road, leaving Rose to follow along behind you.

You’re not sure who scoops Dave to his feet only for him to put his book away and insist that he is fine walking himself, thank you ladies, but you decide the race was a tie while Rose catches up. Then you set off, all four, laughing and talking, toward town to pick up supplies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> grandpa is an interdimensional ho and nobody can tell me he isn't (and we'll eventually meet all of his named kids lol) (brief edit: i did [art for this lol](https://www.deviantart.com/opalsweaterqt/art/Interdimensional-Ho-Grandpa-845115641))  
> this was a super fun chp to write!! i've decided tall jade rights, so their height goes, tallest to shortest, jade ==> dave ==> june ==> rose, though rose insists she and june are the same height  
> (also: i'm sure you're wondering what magic creatures everyone is, and i promise those explanations will be coming soon, lol)


	3. > Rose: Attempt mysterious explanations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> June has a lot of questions, and Rose attempts to have all the answers. "Magic wand" is a flexible idea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello hello i'm back! no pesterlogs in this one, lol  
> this one digs into some more lore stuff so! i'm excited, and i hope you are too : D  
> also, _slight_ spoiler, but i found this track while writing and i think [something like this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00SUPCx60S0) would be fun to have playing while they're at the market, so i figured i'd link y'all to it!

June, understandably, has a lot of questions for you all while you all make the walk over the hills back to town. Or float, in her case, which you’re only a little envious of. You suppose it comes with the “weather” territory; her powers seem to primarily be manifesting as wind, a fact you sort away for later. Perhaps Mom will know something about that.

“So the horns,” she asks, now floating backward with Jade guiding her after a debate about what, exactly, is “up with” “the werewolf/wolf-shifter situation here” (phrasing courtesy of Dave). “And tails. What's up with those?”

“All-natural,” Dave says, shrugging; his tail, to your surprise, waves behind him lazily instead of being curled around his leg. “Comes with the territory of being a bell-ringer and all.”

June’s lips flatten into a line and Jade laughs beside her. “What Dave means to say,” you interrupt, knowing full well it’s not but the phrase is a convenient segue, “is that we’re both, yes, bell-ringers, which are the children of a divine being called a ‘bell’ and a mortal or otherwise non-divine parent.”

“...so you’re demi gods?” June asks.

“That’s not even a real word,” Dave counters.

“Is too!” she insists in turn. “They’re the kids of gods and like, humans or whatever.”

Oh, right, gods. You’ve heard the word more than a few times in mirror world movies and other media Jake has shown you -- he’s rather fond of mirror world movies, so the few times you’ve ever met him when Jade brought you and Dave along for a visit were filled with them -- and gathered it to mean something like the Inherent Ones or Fate’s Children (or any other of the New Divines) or even the Old Ones; the highest or most powerful of divine beings, occasionally a wide cast and occasionally just one, who watch from on high. They’ve always struck you as comparatively cold, considering your near-daily (or, you suppose, near-nightly) communications with your divine patron and Dave’s relatively consistent, handwritten “feelings jams” with his own.

“‘Gods’ isn’t the right word,” you say. You wave a knitting needle in the air, tracing a small map of the planes with light. “Our closest approximation to a ‘god’ lives up here --” you circle the very top “-- while our mother hails from down here --” you circle the very bottom “-- which isn’t Hell if you were wondering.”

“It’s mostly just the Belltower and a lot of vineyards and bakeries,” Dave adds. “Mom has a big vineyard full of cats.”

June puts up the hand not currently intertwined with Jade’s, pausing your addition to Dave’s fun fact. “You’ve got to be fucking with me,” she says.

“You absorbed a weather spirit, nearly died, and found out magic is real, and the Belltower is where you draw the line?” Dave says, grinning in disbelief. “The thing’s actually a pretty chill grandparent for a giant tower of stone and vines.”

“I was thinking more along the lines of that there are divine creatures that aren’t angels or gods, but that too, because 'actually pretty chill' implies it’s sentient?”

“You’re not too far off,” you say, shrugging. “It’s not the same kind of sentient as you or me, but it has an ancient idea of awareness and knowledge about the world. It’s where I draw my power from.”

June face-palms, nearly pushing her glasses off her face, and you see her trying to process the information behind her largely ineffective shield. You let her think, humming a tune Dave had been working on the night before. You have all the time in the world, after all, you can give June some to adjust to the reality of you and Dave's strange grandparent. You've read enough mirror world books -- not many, but more than the movies you've enjoyed -- to guess what June might've expected upon crossing over, and so any fantasy wish-fulfillment she might've built up over the years likely wasn’t holding up under the facts of your world. That alone would take time to sort through.

So you think, too. Think about how Time wants to deliver a prophecy to Dave and through a personal Ascended, no less, instead of through their regular line of communication. Think about how lovely your trip will be with all of you there. Think about your own great prophecy, the one you keep close to your heart; June's arrival is only an optional stepping stone to something bigger, but you’re glad it’s one you took. Think about any question June could possibly ask, because even the ones Jade or Dave could answer you want to have a back-up for, since you’ve managed so far to keep up the idea that you know everything without Dave teasing you about being a know-it-all. And Dave so far has proven to be more committed to jokes than explanations.

“Jade,” June finally says, you suppose having decided to move on from the previous conversation, “you have ears and a tail.”

“I do,” Jade says.

June gestures lazily in the air, prompting both further explanation and a gust of wind that races over your shoes. Jade stares at her for a moment, footsteps faltering, before she puts the ideas together. “Oh, why do I have them?” She chuckles, and her aforementioned tail begins to wag slightly. “Because I can turn into a dog! And this way, I can hear better and feel more at peace.”

“... I feel like that should’ve maybe been obvious,” June says more to herself than any of you.

“Nothing’s obvious when you move between realities,” you say; your next thought is to prompt Jade to say more, but your previous conversation rings in your ears, and you simply meet her eyes. “And it’s not as if some people don’t just have ears and tails all the time whether they’d like to or not.”

The look on June’s face tells you that she will need more explanation later, but she’s interrupted when Jade starts to speak. “It’s because I’m half fae!” Jade rounds out her explanation with. “Why I can turn into a dog, I mean.”

“Oh!” Fae must be a word June recognizes, because she perks up. “What, half fae and half human?”

“Yep! But I was mostly raised by a fae lord since o-- my dad left to go on other adventures.”

Ah, so it’s not the time for that discussion.

“Well, he sounds like a dick.”

Jade snorts. And it’s then that you crest the final hill, revealing the sprawling marketplace down below. Your group stops, June turning around to see down the hill while you and Dave catch up from your previous lag. “Oh wow,” June says.

This marketplace is always one you’ve enjoyed, and the reason you’d requested you pass through this region to where you plan to go camping in the first place. The air smells of food that reminds you of home -- sweet wines, sugar-dusted pastries, warm spiced soups, all manner of fried foods -- and the plentiful magic shops amongst the supply stands and food carts make it a one-stop-shop for a handful of young adults striking out on their own for the first time. Some of the shops are inside buildings, with colorful signs above their doors, others are tents along the sides of the roads, and some are just carts that roll up and down the road as people call them. You know its streets by heart, and making your way from the shop where you buy your enchanted knitting needles to the supply shop, bakery, and then the library is a trip you could take with your eyes closed. It’s even one of the few places you feel safe splitting up with Dave without fear that one or both of you will get lost and overwhelmed to the point of panic.

Though you won’t be doing any of that today because the important thing is gathering supplies as a group and showing June how trading works in this sort of marketplace.

Well... you twirl the knitting needle in your hand and wonder if you can spin a lesson out of visiting the enchanter to get your newest needles tuned up. You’re rather fond of the color and you’d hate to lose a chance to prepare them for full, proper magic use.

“June, how would you like to see a real magic shop?” you ask, trying to make your smile as innocent as possible. “As in, a shop for the tools and tricks of real magic.”

You see Dave laugh and roll his eyes out of the corner of yours, but you simply spin your knitting needle between your fingers and pretend as though you can’t. The question gets both June and Jade’s attention, June’s eyes wide and Jade’s tail wagging. “Yes!” they manage in unison. You won’t even have to make up a lesson.

“You’re outvoted, Dave,” you say without inviting him to give a vote in the first place. “Would you like to join us?”

“Yeah,” he sighs, a sigh which is definitely fake. “Sure, I’ll poke around the magic wand shop, see if they have anything actually cool this time.”

You know the enchanter has offered to help him find something every time he goes and that he almost got the microphone that goes with his recording equipment enchanted last time you were here, and he knows you know, but you just pat him as close to his shoulder as you can manage and grin. “Well thank you, dear brother. I’m sure you’ll find something of interest.” He’s doing you a favor, technically, you’ll be easy on him.

You take the lead this time, weaving through the streets, stalls, and the late afternoon crowd with practiced ease, June right behind you, Jade behind her, and Dave at the end to make sure neither of your more unfamiliar companions get lost. Distantly, you hear Dave pick up snacks as you walk, but you aren’t focused on that. You try to tune in, listen to the thrum of the market itself, to the sounds that the Belltower has been teaching you to hear to assist with your mission now that you have a moment unoccupied by conversation. The ground beneath you sings its deep song, the footsteps on gravel today’s accompanying percussion, the heartbeats of differing tempos and numbers all around like members of the same orchestra playing behind a thick curtain. Nothing out of the ordinary. Your relief is instant, but behind it is creeping nerves, telling you it could be any day, now. It could be any day that the song changes, or even stops.

Dave is pulling at your sleeve when you snap out of your contemplation. All four of you are in front of the enchanter’s shop, and your needles have jumped to both hands, poised and ready. He gives you a look, the one he’s been giving you for weeks that says he knows _something’s_ up but not what that _something_ is, and you shoot one back telling him to leave it alone. He offers you a raspberry jam-filled bun pulled from a dimension pocket; he won’t be dropping it, it says, but he won’t push the topic now.

“This is an enchanter’s shop,” you say as you spin to face Jade and June, though your words are mostly directed at June. “This particular enchanter specializes in magic focuses, like my knitting needles, but they have all sorts of gadgets around as well.”

“Do they have any of those magic figures?” Jade asks, ears perked up. “The, what did Jake call them, action figures?”

“They do,” Dave answers for you. Wow, you actually didn’t know that. “Not a whole lot, but they’ve got some.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” June says, and when she throws her arms up she goes with them another inch off the ground.

You laugh, your heart alight for a moment. You open the door for everyone and slip inside last. The lobby you step into is brightly lit, a stained glass chandelier casting everything in soft hues of a thousand different colors, with a large counter in one corner and much of the remaining space taken up by display cases for pre-made focuses, examples of the enchanter’s work (including an old prototype knitting needle of yours), and instructions, pros and cons, and recommendations about focus work. You don’t see the person you’re expecting right away, maybe she’s --

The enchanter appears right in front of you and she opens her arms with a cry of, “Rose, Dave! You’re back!”

You and Dave are swept up into Ms. Paint’s arms, and you manage a, “It’s nice to see you, Ms. Paint!” with your lungs partially compressed; Ms. Paint is not a tall woman, no, but she’s told you stories about her more active youth before, and her strength has never diminished.

She sets you and Dave down before turning to June and Jade. June is hiding, just slightly, behind Jade, her legs curled up under her as she floats.

“Ms. Paint, these are our friends Jade and June,” you say. “Jade, June, this is Ms. Paint, the enchanter.”

“A pleasure to meet you,” Ms. Paint says.

“It’s uh, nice to meet you too!” Jade replies.

“Like wise,” June says carefully, and it takes you a moment to realize what must be throwing her off.

Ms. Paint is a full fae, with glossy, porcelain-like white skin and round, pitch-black eyes that border no noticeable nose; there’s no hair on her head, and that fact is hidden under a bright scarf. Her colorful outfit conceals most of her ball-joints, but the ones on her fingers are unmistakable when she holds out her hand in greeting. Jade takes it, shaking her hand, and it’s only through consistent exposure that you nearly miss the sound of porcelain on porcelain when her limbs move. “I think we may have met, Jade,” Ms. Paint hums.

“My guardian is Becquerel,” is the only explanation she gives, but it’s one Ms. Paint understands.

(You don’t know much about Bec, the fae lord who raised Jade, but his name is always treated with a reverence you see rarely otherwise.)

“So, are you here for yourself or Miss June, Rose?” Ms. Paint asks, rounding around the counter to stand behind it. “Or perhaps both?”

The question catches you off guard. You hadn’t even thought of something for June, but… “Both,” you say. “It sounds like you have something in mind for her?”

Dave motions for Jade to follow him to a table full of the magic action figures, leaving you and June to face Ms. Paint. June lands and settles at your level. Ms. Paint looks you both up and down, deciding to hold out a hand to you. "I do, but you're here with your focuses in hand, so let's take care of you first my dear."

She doesn’t specify which ones but your newest set of knitting needles never left your hand. You set them in her outstretched palm and say, “They’ve worked well so far, but the center of some of my larger spells has been leaning left.”

"Ah, a basic coordination issue," Ms. Paint assures you, looking them over. "You and the needles just need to be on the same page. An easy fix, just one moment.”

Ms. Paint takes both needles in one hand, curling her fingers around them in a way that if it were anyone else would grate your very being. But they remember her, still appreciate her care, and so you simply heed their call to stick out your left hand and place it in Ms. Paint’s. You don’t understand the process -- you’re no enchanter, your business is with ancient divine magic -- but the warm feeling it sweeps across your being is all you need to understand. Out of the corner of your eye, you see June, her hands clasped together and pressed against her lips as if she doesn’t know what to do with them. You wish you could reassure her that this is fine, that you’ll be fine, that in fact this is one of your favorite feelings in the world, to feel the pure magic of the world running over you, but the compulsion to close your eyes takes over before you can.

You are in a space. It’s the same as every time you come here, the cozy office with an old typewriter and a desk, with windows overlooking a vast desert you don’t know the name of. Your knitting needles are on the desk. Picking them up is not an action so much as a thought. They’re warm in your hands, malleable, and you point them forward. _This way_ , you think, imagining the sharp thorns that serve as your primary form of defensive magic, imagining them flying through the air straight out at the moon that always rests in the same corner of the far window. You imagine how they flew last time you and Dave practiced, and then you imagine how they should’ve flown.

The knitting needles understand.

You open your eyes back in the shop. June looks less nervous, shooting you two thumbs up. Your needles are in your hands here, too, and you point one at a target set up in the corning of the ceiling. A single thorn flies true, hitting the bullseye.

“Thank you, Ms. Paint,” you say, grinning. Your needles disappear to wherever they do, awaiting your call, and you follow your statement with, “And what about June?”

“What about you, Miss June?” Ms. Paint asks. “You have something on your mind.”

June rocks back and forth on her feet, thinking for a moment. “What about a hammer?” she asks, much to your surprise but apparently not Ms. Paint’s.

“A hammer, hmm?”

“Yeah, I uh, give me a second.”

And June floats, first to the height that she spent your journey at, then a little higher. Wobbling just slightly, she goes up, up, up, around the exposed beams of the ceilings and into a corner you hadn’t noticed was hiding some sort of object. It looks small at first but as June pulls it out from its hiding place, the largest and hardest to look at hammer you've ever seen reveals itself from the shadows. A warhammer, its head larger than the handle looks capable of holding, bright colors and edges that you can’t make out as round or sharp, somehow; it looks like it belongs on some other plane, but in June’s hands it seems to… settle. To shrink, not to a reasonable size necessarily but suited for her grip. Somewhere, you hear Dave and Jade gasp. And June holds it like it's nothing. You've never heard of weather spirits being known for their strength, which implies…

If you hadn't known June for so long in friendship, the idea might've made you blush a bit.

"This was hiding up here, but I think it likes me?" June says; she swings it like a baseball bat, and behind it attempts to trail a few miniature rain clouds.

"You just _found_ that like no big deal?" Dave asks, throwing up his hands. "June that's a big ass hammer that looks like it's rejecting our reality and you're handling it like nothing?"

Jade adds on, "That looks like Old Magic, too!"

June shrugs from her place up high. "It likes me," is her only explanation. And instead of coming back down, she hooks her legs on some invisible bar and hangs upside down, hammer in hand, face level with Ms. Paint's. "Could you do that thing to me?" she asks. "With the magic bonding."

“I believe it’s already bonded with you,” Ms. Paint says, chuckling. “But if you’d like, I could try, yes.”

She doesn’t take the hammer from June, only taps her index finger on June’s forehead. For a moment you tense up, afraid you’re about to watch one of your best friends slam to the ground, but June stays suspended in the air even as she closes her eyes and settles her breathing. Ms. Paint waves you off. “It’ll be a while, I’ll keep watch,” she says with a wink.

You take her word for it and wander into the maze of focuses. You meet Dave and Jade by a table of action figures, several of whom seem to be moving on their own and getting into fake fights.

“Holy shit!” Dave says, grinning. “Did you _see_ that thing?”

“Up close,” you say. “It’s…”

“It’s _old_ is what it is!” Jade puts her hands in her pockets, shoulders up in emphasis. “I’m not expert on Old Magic, not as much as Bec, but if that hammer has ‘Old Ones’ written _all over it_.”

“Old Magic?” you reply, wrinkling your eyebrows. “Surely all traces of that outside of the Belltower’s Realm were put to sleep ages ago.”

Jade shakes her head. “It’s everywhere, really.”

“Kind of hard to erase the magic that shaped the planet, I’d think,” Dave says, shrugging. “And it’s not like it’s hostile, ‘cause if it was it wouldn’t have taken a liking to June so fast.”

“Are you sure that’s not just because everyone seems to like June?” you joke.

Dave punches you in the shoulder with no real force, but the joke lightens up the mood enough that Jade and Dave switch to explaining the action figures to you (whether or not the hammer is Old Magic, you suppose, is none of your business anyway). As per their explanation, each figure is enchanted with independent movement, but their range of movements are limited; some come pre-programmed with entire fight sequences, others can walk and talk on demand but little else. Some are wooden or porcelain dolls made by Ms. Paint or her husband, some are from other figure makers in the market, and some you know for a fact Jake himself delivered from the mirror world, having seen the shipment personally.

“I’m thinking about getting this little guy,” Dave says, picking up one not involved in the tiny battle. “He seems cool.”

The figurine is a porcelain one a little under ten inches tall, dressed in red with long sleeves and pants under a red cape. His hair and skin both stark white, his hair carefully formed of some combination of porcelain and felt, cut short and styled in a way that reminds you somehow of a bird. He has glasses almost like your brother’s, you realize with a snort. “He looks like you,” you comment.

“Exactly! Coolest dude here. And check these out --”

He gestures to the one Jade is holding, who resembles Jade as much as Dave’s figurine resembles him, the passing notion there but the tiny figurine stripped of identifying facial features other than dark hair, big round glasses, and tiny white dog ears, dressed in black and white, and to another still sitting on the table, who bears a similar resemblance to yourself, with tiny, mascaraed eyes instead of glasses and dressed in orange robes. You’ve never been one to dress in orange, but you pick up the figurine anyway. She feels… nice in your hands. Warm, almost, like a picnic blanket left in the sun.

“I found this one first!” Jade says, holding up one that, to complete this strange occurrence, resembles June in the same, abstract, glasses-faced way, though the figurine’s hair only reaches her shoulders instead of past them.

“We have to get them,” Dave says, practically bouncing up and down on his feet.

Your gaze turns to the one in your hands, her own hands folded in her lap. “I think we do,” you say. “I wonder what enchantments they have.”

“Pretty basic ones,” Jade says, setting the June-like figurine down to examine her own. “Probably just walking or some gestures, but we haven’t really tried to activate them, yet.”

“It’ll be a campfire game,” Dave says.

You’re pretty sure that’s not a term people use, but your amusement about the situation keeps you from remarking on it. Instead, you turn your gaze toward June, who still looks asleep. Ms. Paint holds up two fingers, smiling reassuringly. You can handle that. Figurines in hand, you start to actually eat the bun Dave gave you as the three of you continue to explore the shop, waiting for June to wake up.

She does two minutes later with a “Holy shit!” and a movement that flips her to her “feet” in the air. She stares at the hammer, something new behind her eyes, and then tosses it into the air, where it… disappears. Stored, presumably.

“June, come check these out,” Dave says, waving her over.

She does, and you slip away to avoid hearing Dave’s long-winded explanation over again while also telling Ms. Paint, “Thank you for your help. And we’d like these, if that’s alright.”

“Of course! You see the family resemblance, don’t you?” she chuckles. “I don’t think those were meant for anyone else but you four.”

Cryptic.

“We’ll be going, then,” you say. “Off to buy supplies and all.”

“You have a wonderful trip, my dears,” Ms. Paint replies.

You smile back at her, and the others seem to have caught on; you’re back on the streets in only a few moments, figurines stored away and your sights set on the camping supply shop a few buildings down.

What an interesting camping trip this is turning out to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a big shout out to my wonderful friend/VIP reader/creative consultant, [octo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClockworkDinosaur/pseuds/le2biian), who has been a huge help, bcus this chapter took! a lot of brainstorming and a lot of goofing around about and i couldn't have done it without them!! and who has some very good fanfics you should definitely go check out at the link above : 3  
> (also: so technically the hammer is the hammer of zillyhoo, but while googling said hammer of zillyhoo i was reminded of the Pop-a-matic Vrillyhoo Hammer, so you can decide which one it is for yourself)


	4. > Dave: Locate camping supplies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Camping takes a lot of supplies, and only three out of the four friends know where to find what they need. Dave and June have some banter while they go looking for the heaviest supplies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey what's up i swear i didn't die! i just needed to work out how to write dave!  
> and now that all of the betas have had their turn, point of view order is going to be a little looser! i wanted to get everyone's perspectives set up and from now on i'm just going to go with whoever feels right for the chapter ^u^ (though some of the other Major Players in this fic won't have pov chapters until they're properly introduced!)  
> also dave is neurodivergent and that's just how it is babey

You figure out how to get your mini-you to balance on your shoulder as you all approach the giant camping supplies store and it's the second-best thing to happen to you today. Under different circumstances, it might’ve been the absolute best, but it’s hard to beat getting to see one of your best friends in person for the first time since you met almost a decade before. Mini-you still ranks pretty high up in your list of good things that could happen on a given day, even if the fact that mini-you was accompanied by mini versions of your twin sister and best friends comes off unneededly cryptic. Some part of you wonders if Time had something to do with it, because Time has been trying to communicate a prophecy to you for weeks, but if it was you figure they’ll say something whenever they contact you next. That’s just how it works between you two.

Thinking about Time makes your nose wrinkle, though, after your conversation earlier in the day, so you push the idea aside for a while. You can’t really stay mad at them, not for long, not after they’ve clearly been worried about something (probably the prophecy), but it was still frustrating to get interrupted mid-friend-reunion. Even if June then immediately got a phone call and interrupted the rest of your friend-reunion. Is June’s Dad working for Time?

You shake your head because that was a dumb idea.

The trance of your own thoughts broken, you tune yourself back into the conversation just in time to hear June say, “So you just… ask for stuff?”

“Within reason, yeah!” Jade explains. “Like we can’t take all of the tents they have but since we just want one, we just grab it and let them know that we want it.”

June opens her mouth like she wants to question it, but can’t seem to think of the question she wants to ask, so you add in, “Don’t worry about it, we’ll take care of all the talking and shit, you’re new to this whole vibe.”

“I don’t… I don’t think that’s the right word?” June says.

You shrug, rebalancing your mini-me without thinking about it when he nearly slides off of your shoulder. “You understand what I mean, though.”

June’s expression says that she does but she’s not entirely happy about that. Transitioning from chat to talking face-to-face works perfectly well, then; you’re grinning and you don’t even really care.

You all drift through the crowds, arriving at the doors of the biggest building in this marketplace: the main supplies shop. Big windows, big displays, two floors full of goods, supplies, and a handful of dioramas donated by Central Academy biology students finished with their school projects. Jake compared it to a “sporting goods warehouse” -- what that is, you have no idea, but it’s a comparison you store in your mental pocket in case June asks you -- and it’s a personal favorite of yours for a few reasons: the giant fish tank, the animal models, and the snack stands. The variety of supplies is fun, too, you like to poke through the swords they have on hand and occasionally a local bard or band will set up in the empty corner set aside for music magic and offer stuff you can use for your own music. You haven’t heard of anyone in town, so you cross that off your mental list for the day, but there’s still swords and snacks to look at.

The doors swing open for your group, breaking you away from the outdoor crowds and into the only slightly thinner inside crowd. It’s not a popular time of year to go on camping trips -- fall is in full swing, and more people than not are inclined to do their camping in the spring and summer -- but a glance around and your inability to turn your hearing off tells you that most of them are getting prepped ahead of time like you’d suggested to Rose before she gave you a “I know things I don’t want to talk about” face and the subject got dropped. Maybe she'd figured out that June might be joining you; your original supply shopping plan wouldn't have been enough.

If only she'd just _t_ _alk to you_ about it.

But you have to shake that off; you’re not about to start that argument all over again in front of Jade and June. So you force yourself to just… relax. Instinctively as you blend into the crowds, you hook your headphones around your neck and start playing whatever song you’d left on next, letting the sound make something of a barrier against the countless, timeless conversations going on around you so you can properly tune into what your friends are saying.

“Suggestion: we split up,” Jade says. “We’ll cover more ground and not have to worry so much about sticking together! All we’d need is a meeting point.”

“I don’t know where any thing is, though,” June says. “I’m sure this place isn’t Home Alone booby trapped, but I don’t really want to go wandering by myself if I can help it.”

“You and I can go grab the heavy stuff,” you suggest. When June raises her eyebrow, you shrug, hands in the pocket of your hoodie, mini-you balanced against your neck. “You can throw around that hammer and/or me like a stack of CDs, lifting a camp stove or whatever shouldn’t be hard and I know for the most part where everything is in relation to the swords.”

“The Hammer of Zillyhoo isn’t _that_ heavy,” June protests, rolling her eyes. You can see Rose wanting to ask just how June knows the hammer’s name, but June keeps going before she can say anything. “I guess that works, though. It’ll be like a scavenger hunt!”

“Hey!” you protest. “My navigation skills are great, smooth sailing only, no searching for clues necessary."

“Your navigation skills are… limited in their greatness, I’d say,” Rose teases. “But it’s a sound plan otherwise. Where shall we meet up?”

“The aquarium,” is out of your mouth before you can think of a cooler way to say it. Welp.

Jade’s smile gets really big. “Yes!” she says, tail wagging. “I love the aquarium.”

You're saved by her enthusiasm, fuck yeah.

Rose's grin says that she saw through Jade saving you, but out loud the four of you divide up what items you'll need and you all go your separate directions. June floats through the air, right about at your height, and part of you wonders if she does it on purpose or if it's subconscious; you're not sure how to phrase the question, though, so you drop it for another time.

"So, where _are_ we going?" June asks.

"The sword aisle," you say, shrugging. "My amazing internal map is kind of centered on the thing. But swords are also way cooler than camping supplies, so really I'm doing you a solid taking you there first."

June snorts. "Yeah, have to agree on swords over camping supplies. I think hammers are better than swords, though."

"Oh no, absolutely not," you say, your gasp only slightly exaggerated. "Hammers make way less cool sounds swinging through the air. Sure a crunch is a good impact sound but you lose the _pizazz_ of -- when'd you even _get_ an opinion on weapons?"

June shrugs innocently enough, but there's a grin tugging at the corner of her mouth that even you pick up on, because June is a terrible liar. "The Hammer of Zillyhoo makes a pretty good case, that's all I know."

You roll your eyes mostly for show. "You hold _one_ enchanted weapon and you're suddenly an expert."

"Nah." As if to help prove her point, June summons the hammer at regular tool size, flips it into the air, and dissipates it into thin air with a second throw. "I just had a conversation with an enchanted weapon."

You don't even have a retort for that, mostly because you start laughing and it's hard to sound cool and aloof when you're actively laughing. Both of you arrive at the weapons section before you can recover all the way, so you just nudge June toward the hammers and agree to meet back in the middle after you've browsed and assure her she won't get lost in the weapons department. So browse you do, headphones turned off for a bit, exploring not just the swords but anything with an edge on it, accidentally overhearing a group of friends' conversations, which you tune into after the first one because one person, in particular, keeps coming up.

You're examining some axes. "Clairre, you don't need _another_ hatchet!" says one girl in mostly fuschia to another group member almost two feet shorter than her, who appears to be holding a hatchet with, and who is in possession of an orange mullet and a large ax.

In the spears. "Clairre, darling, I love you, but I don't even think that counts as an ax?" says another, shorter girl than the first but taller than the one with the ax, with long hair and a business casual look to the one with the ax on their back.

"It does," says who you presume, at this point, to be Clairre. The weapon they're holding doesn't look like an ax. "Weapons can be multipurpose! It’s got a handle and a big blade, it counts. I'm the expert or whatever."

“I… no?”

You lose track of them further into the spears, but as you’re digging into the ever-impressive sword selection, you catch another conversation. “I don’t think this even counts as a sword,” says the shortest member of their group, holding up what is very clearly a shovel.

“Well, yeah, it’s got too much handle to be a sword. Persephone’d like it, though,” Clairre says. “We can take it with us to --”

“Clairre,” says the fuschia-clad girl, “Clairre, where did you even _get_ that ax?”

“Oh, this one?” Clairre rustles around in their bag, and, “I took it while you were looking at other stuff.”

Someone laughs and someone sighs, and they leave but you catch enough context to deduce that this isn’t the first time this has happened and that they're going camping, too. That’s an upside, you guess, to your weird, supernatural-even-for-your-family hearing, you get to listen in on conversations, which technically you’re not supposed to do but what’s someone going to do when you overhear a conversation in a mall, sue you? You weren’t even following them around, you just happened to bump into them a few times. It’s fine. You glance down at your mini-me as if to confirm, and his expression doesn’t change. Chill under pressure, perfect.

You’re turning a sword nearly identical to yours over in your hand, trying to decide whether it’d be worth it to get a second one and wondering if you can piece together a command to ask mini-you when June strolls up to you, her feet actually on the ground and a big grin on her face. There’s a box under her arm that you don’t register for a second, and before you even realize you’ve registered what it is you’re saying, “You found a camping stove without me?”

"Found one on accident," she proclaims, clearly proud of herself. "They're not that far away from the hammers, actually."

"No, fuck no, that can't be right," you say, trying to suppress your grin to stick your lip out in a fake pout. "The cooking supplies are like two sections over."

June stares you down, still grinning, and you can feel its contagious nature. "I _may_ have gotten lost like I said I would," she finally confesses. "Pretty sure the Hammer of Zillyhoo didn't want me browsing other weapons."

“So you _are_ in need of my amazing navigation skills after all,” you say, hands triumphantly in your hoodie pocket. “I don’t think being confused by a weirdly possessive hammer into finding what you were looking for counts as a scavenger hunt or successful store navigation.”

She snorts with a laugh. “The Hammer’s not weirdly possessive,” she insists, shifting the box under her arm. “Just new to the world, kind of like me!”

You start walking in the direction of your next item as you reply, “June, that hammer is older than everything around here but the ground.”

June follows, adjusting the stove under her arm. You shift sides, taking the box and stashing it in a dimensional pocket so she doesn’t have to lug it around. As you walk, she considers something, and then says, “Well, you know when you go visit your hometown or like an old school after moving away for a couple of years and everything seems different?”

While your knee-jerk reaction is no, you remember… something like that. Two visits to the Belltower, the only two times you’ve ever been in its ever-changing hallways. “Sure.”

“That’s kind of what the Hammer’s going through! Waking up after a few millennia of napping means you may as well be an interdimensional transfer resident.”

You can’t really argue with a point you don’t get, so you make a noise of confirmation and flip your headphones back on to drown out the background noise as your journey takes you further into the supplies store. You and June got the smallest list, considering you’re grabbing the larger items, and despite your friends’ insistence that your navigation skills need work once you orient yourself to the swords, your entire list is crossed off in no time at all.

“These places always seem to have animal displays of some kind,” June remarks as she picks through a container of candied almonds you grabbed on the way to the aquarium.

“Hmm?” you manage around a handful of candied pecans.

June gestures to the supply store as a whole. “I haven’t gone into a lot of them, but the hunting goods stores and stuff, they always have some sort of animal display, like is it a legal requirement?”

You chew on the thought (and your pecans) as you round the corner just before the aquarium. “Probably,” you say, “that seems like a weird mirror world thing that could happen. The ones around here are just donated academy projects.”

“And the aquarium?”

The aquarium stretches up before you, an entire room on its own set into the wall and floor, lit up with gentle simulated sunlight from above and deep enough that you can’t see the bottom if you get up to the glass and look down. You like doing that; looking down at the abyss reminds you of looking up at the night sky at home. But for June’s sake, you avoid it for now and reply, “People like looking at fish.”

You stand together, snacks in hand, and watch the fish swim by. Rainbows of fish, of all sizes and shapes, some individuals you recognize by their markings and others you know the species of but not much else. June occasionally makes a surprised noise when any of the especially bright ones look at you two directly, and you follow their schooling patterns with your eyes. You doubt June actually recognizes any of them, and you almost motion her toward the plaques on the wall that detail the species you might see, but the silence around you is one of contemplation, and it hits you all over that as excited as you’ve been this whole time… June wasn’t kidding when she compared her morning to waking up after being asleep for millennia, presumably (for only the Hammer, hopefully) after losing someone precious to you (which is a thought you don't entirely understand the origin of, but if the Hammer really is Old Magic, its original creator is probably gone).

June doesn’t look like she’s having an existential crisis, but you usually don’t when you have yours, either.

And you're not keen on one, so you look for a way out.

turntechGodhead [TG] began pestering  tentacleTherapist [TT] and gardenGnostic [GG]

TG: hey yall were waiting on you with the fish and snacks

turntechGodhead [TG] ceased pestering  tentacleTherapist [TT] and gardenGnostic [GG]

Rose and Jade’s voices break the silence a few minutes later, and internally you can't deny you’re thankful.

Camping sounds way more exciting than contemplating your place in the universe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shout out to my d&d group, whose characters made a cameo in this chp! see the fic linked in the end-end note for this fic for more info on them bcus i love them a lot ~~(especially clairre, who's my dumbass)~~


	5. > June: Participate in shopping montage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There are lots of reasons people generally plan their moves in advance: furniture moving, sleeping arrangements, having enough clothes to last you an uncertain time span... luckily, good friendship makes up for some of the setbacks of sudden moving.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lol it's been a hot second hasn't it  
> it turns out... montages aren't great for a prose form. but i figured it out! and some friends make brief appearances : 3!! hope you enjoy ^u^  
> (i've also realized while editing this that june is the only one of the beta kids who doesn't have a tail in this universe, and something about that makes me laugh)  
>  ~~(the iguana consort and mutie plushies i've bought in the down time between chapters say hi)~~

You discover one of the few downsides of low-effort floating when you trip over Rose's outstretched arm. You don’t know how to catch yourself, having never before fallen out of thin air, and only avoid face planting into the ground outside of the supply store because your momentum flips you onto your back and knocks the wind out of your lungs. Rose cringes when you hit the ground and is immediately at your side to help you up as Dave and Jade catch onto the fact that you took a tumble.

“I’m so sorry,” Rose says, and you try to shoot her an ‘it’s okay’ grin as she helps brush you off. “I just had a realization and forgot you weren’t at my height level.”

“It’s alright!” you say, combing out your hair with your fingers to get rid of any dirt. “What’d you mysteriously realize?”

“You don’t have any clothes.”

You don’t have to look at Dave or Jade to know that they’re as confused as you are. Your eyes flick down to your clothes, over to Dave and Jade, and then back to Rose as you try to put together a response, twisting your hair in your hands. “What?” is the best thing you can come up with.

Rose purses her lips, looks between you all, and then waves a hand through the air. A suitcase comes at her command and as she fiddles with the lock on it you all shuffle to an alleyway next to the supply shop to get out of the way. As she pops it open to reveal a bunch of clothes, Rose explains, “As much as I’m willing to share my clothes, I only packed so much, and I have a feeling not everything I own is… well, quite your style.”

You look over the clothes she’s motioning toward, and you admit to yourself that she has a much higher fondness for pinks, purples, and dramatic silhouettes than you do. “But I _do_ have clothes,” you say as Rose puts her suitcase away. “They’re just at home.”

“Except we can’t go get those,” Jade chimes in, nodding her head in a new understanding. “Your dad’s out of town, right?”

“He doesn’t live in the same town as I do, so, yeah.”

Jade taps her fingers together, debating on something. “If your dad can’t help us out, there’s really not a way to get to your apartment right now.”

“Remember how you had to get over to this side of the Divide upon absorbing the spirit?” Rose says. You remember your conversation about explosions with only a little cringe and nod, so Rose continues, “It’d be far worse for Dave and myself, and Jade…?”

“It just sucks,” Jade says, shrugging. “I wouldn’t die as fast as you guys but it’s… itchy.”

You wrinkle your nose; somehow, your skin echoes the sensation she’s talking about, and you understand why she wouldn’t want to put herself through that for clothes. And you’re not particularly excited about Jade’s implication that she could, in fact, _still die_ on the other side of the Divide, because the idea of any of you dying makes your brain hurt a bit. So you pivot away from death and back to your lack of a wardrobe. You’re not sure what Rose is planning to do about the issue, but she probably has some sort of plan, right? Meaning you don’t have to think of one.

You look at Rose, but she’s not who speaks first. “What about Jake?” Dave asks very pointedly at Jade, his tail catching your attention when it starts twitching back and forth. Who Jake is, you have no clue.

“Busy,” Jade sighs. “He’s on a big trip right now and it’s a pain to reach him.” The rest of her mumbled reply -- something about a grandpa and how phones “aren’t exactly _new_ technology” -- gets lost in the ambient noise.

You open your mouth to ask who Jake is, exactly, but your question changes direction mid-way through internally putting words together and you ask no one in particular, “So what _are_ we going to do?”

“I thought the answer would be obvious,” Rose teases, grinning; you can’t see her tail, but you can imagine its mischievous motion. “We’ll just have to put off our camping trip a bit longer to go on that shopping trip that I believe is a few years overdue.”

It takes you a moment to remember what she’s talking about, but when it clicks, you laugh. A few years overdue is right, even if at the time your friends had made the promise you’d thought they were joking. The excitement is contagious; Jade’s tail is wagging and Dave is smiling and rocking back and forth on his feet. “Time to pay up, then: one shopping montage it is!” you joke, and you’d throw your arms around all of your friends if their heights weren’t all so different, so you settle for just giving Rose a side hug.

After a discussion you’re not privy to, Jade leads the way to a smaller, more colorful shop; tapestries hung outside the door frame (no door, which makes you wonder what they do when it rains) depict a silver figure and a gold figure wrapped in an embrace, each with glowing halos; a tall figure in a long veil tapping what looks like a super long knitting needle to the forehead of a kneeling giant; and a red-winged angelic child falling from an upside-down, multi-colored city skyline and into waiting jade-green hands. Another tapestry hangs next to the one with the falling child, but you can’t make out what it is in its unfinished state. Someone with a lot of hair and horns, maybe? Not quite what you were expecting after the supply shop, but it reminds you of a cozy thrift store and you don’t mind that at all.

The store is _much_ bigger on the inside; in fact, you're pretty sure you see a staircase spiraling downward in the corner. And your thrift store comparison holds through, with rows of racks like a careful grid of rolling rainbows laid out across most of the store and two walls full of accessories, all labeled with signs hung from the ceiling. You suppose the tapestries hung in various spots could almost replace the somehow extremely specific paintings you find in your local thrift stores, if you don’t think about it too hard (the perfect crime). Despite its size, there aren’t many people around; you spot a girl with feathers coming out from behind her ears like gold hand fans motioning over another person who looks like they're halfway through turning into a giant bird person and a lady with long black hair streaked with jade talking to a girl with short dreadlocks about two vests, but otherwise, the store seems empty. Money isn't really a thing here, sure, but the last two (only two) stores you've been to had attendants! Maybe the people who own this store are downstairs?

You don't get much more time to think about that as Rose and Jade pull you toward a section of clothing in what you hope is your size and Jade asks, "What kind of clothes do you want to start with?"

Your thoughts turn to clothes instead. You’ve almost worked out a style you’re comfortable with, back home, but you’re on a new planet so maybe you should try something new! Most of the people you've seen are wearing relatively familiar clothes, but you also _definitely_ see a wizard robe covered in hilariously stereotypical stars and moons hanging nearby and it's only the robe's magenta hue that keeps you from grabbing it.

Oh, oh! You dart over to where the robe is hanging; something blue and long hanging next to it pulls your eye. You hear your friends looking through some of the other clothes on their own in lieu of you giving suggestions -- Rose always has a direction about her that you’re sure will produce interesting results, Jade says several promising things about cute tops, and Dave wonders out loud if there are any interesting suits around here -- but the _outfit_ you unexpectedly free from the rack catches all of your attention front and center. It’s blue, the kind of blue that your dad always teases matches your eyes and that just seems to _fit_. It’s actually… a lot like the cropped hoodie and jeans you have on now? But the fabric on the cropped hoodie you’re holding is shimmering, patterned with what you thought was waves but might be air currents that bend in the light as if they’re really rushing across the fabric, and the hood is long, almost to the floor and resembling some sort of… what do they call those? Wind socks? It’s just dumb enough that you feel like that’s right. The bottoms are capris, though they aren’t denim; they’re a similar fabric to the top, slightly darker and with the shifting patterns concentrated toward the ends of the flowing legs. A big blue wind symbol is swept across the front and sewn into the hems, and you realize with a start that they’re also lining yellow espadrilles hanging from the back of the hanger.

You feel like you’re destined to be holding this outfit and the feeling is just strange enough that you don’t question it because if you bring it up your friends might have questions that you can’t answer. So you just drape it over your arm and keep looking.

Rose is the first to pull you over to where she’s found some things for you to try on. They look suspiciously like her own outfits with slightly less ominous decorations and a blue paint job, but the light in her eyes is bright and you’re not going to turn that down. Jade finds a handful of jackets, tank tops, and shorts, explaining that your body temperature is going to be weird while the magic settles into your body so you may as well be prepared, though she leaves before you can ask about sweatpants. Dave shows up with a little cart you can’t say for sure belongs in this store and, as you’re loading the stuff in your arms into the basket, “casually” asks what kind of suit fits you’d be comfortable in and your opinion on shapeshifting bottoms. You manage to find a few more items of your own before Rose calls you over, then Dave, and oh Rose and Jade are putting something together for you! Your friends are conspiring about something but you found a wizard robe in blue and you’re too busy deciding whether it’d be worth it to listen in, but they all seem excited if their various tails are anything to go by!

You bounce around the store, slowly filling your little cart with possible choices. Jade starts humming first, but you catch on, and soon all four of you are humming music that you’ve probably seen in at least one montage because it seems like the kind of song that would be used for one despite no movie jumping to mind. It probably doesn’t matter anyway, you think just in time for Dave to roll over a brand new, bright blue suitcase for you with a big grin on his face because what matters is that the next phase of a shopping montage is trying on all of the ridiculous outfits your friends found and posing dramatically in front of a dressing room, and your cart is full enough to start getting unwieldy.

The dressing rooms are hiding in the back of the store opposite the stairs. They’re the kind with curtains instead of doors, perfect for a proper dramatic reveal, though you wonder if in any other circumstance you’d be creeped out by how easily they could be theoretically opened.

Oh well. Rose, Dave, and Jade all take their places outside of your dressing room, you pull your cart of options in with you, and you commence the best part of any shopping montage: showing off each item in a random pattern of seriousness, goofy, and oddly prophetic. You get “oohs” and “aahs” and one outfit that just makes everyone sort of wrinkle their nose in confusion -- a black t-shirt you’d mistakenly thought was blank but apparently is emblazoned with a zodiac symbol of some kind, and pants that reach your armpits. Each of your friends has a slightly different opinion on your outfits (exactly why you need all of them, as is the rule of outfit shopping), and you pretend you don’t notice that Rose always likes the outfits she picked a little more than any of the other ones or that Jade and Dave had been coordinating some of their picks which they then try to pitch as separate ideas. A few outfits are hard no’s, mostly ones that you’re pretty sure they picked out for themselves instead of you, but you get a good collection going for your new suitcase and Dave even managed to track you down a nice dark teal suit with pants that could become a skirt or shorts or "theoretically anything that sits on your waist," just in case "we stumble into a kick-ass party or something."

And then when you try on the blue outfit with the windy symbols the silence that follows is not disapproving so much as in awe, and that one you… keep on, for some reason. There are a few outfits left in your cart but you hesitate to go back for those and Rose holds out a hand, saying, “No, that one…”

“I like that one,” Jade offers.

“It fits,” Dave seems to finish the comment off with.

You let out a sigh of relief. “So we’re all on the same page, then.”

The rejected outfits get set aside on a table labeled for their deposit and the confirmed put into your suitcase, your new clothes hugging you like a blanket. They just feel… right.

“You’re ready, then?” says a shadow so big it eats your entire body.

Dave and Rose look as frozen as you feel, but Jade gives the shadow a big smile and says, “Yeah, we’re heading out pretty soon!”

You manage to turn, and the shadow turns out to be one of the tallest women you’ve ever seen. You can’t even put a number on her height, just that she towers over even Jade and has the muscles to match, with curling, waving horns that are such a dark purple you almost miss them against her mass of black hair. She has some sort of white and black face paint on, with big orange canines that look fake, and her smile on literally anyone else would be kind but she towers over you enough that it comes off a little intimidating.

"Hi," you manage.

"Greetings, little sister." Her voice is smoother, slower suddenly. Like when you approach a scared cat.

Maybe you're the scared cat, here.

"I saw what you have, so you're free to go when you’re ready," she continues, looking over at Jade more than you. "We have no new tapestries today; little blue closed her studio for a vacation."

“Oh, fun!” Jade says, and her smile is so bright you see Dave and Rose relax a little bit. “Maybe we’ll swing by on our way back from our camping trip!”

The woman chuckles, low and powerful, and ruffles Jade’s hair as she departs back deeper into the shop. Jade’s nose scrunches a bit as she smoothes her hair back into place, but she’s still smiling, and that lets your shoulders relax. Almost. There’s something in the back of your head, a whisper that you’re missing something, but you push it aside. Probably just residual adrenaline or something.

“We’ve got camping supplies and clothes, now,” you say, shutting your new suitcase. You don’t know how to make it disappear into thin air like Rose did or like what you’ve done with your hammer, but you’re no stranger to lugging around a rolling suitcase, so you just grab the handle. “Is that everything you need for a camping trip?”

“Should --” Dave is interrupted by a crack of thunder and nearly falls out of his seat.

You realize with a start that the only opening this store has is the front doorway, and now there are raindrops thrashing at the threshold (your question when you walked in answered, you suppose) that you hadn’t noticed creeping up until…

Until you had an undistracted moment. You remember the blue wind and get a little sick to your stomach.

“Should be tomorrow,” Dave recovers, smoothing back his hair and wrapping his tail around his leg. “I vote not to set up camp in the rain.”

“I second that,” Jade says.

“June, I believe you’re the most weather inclined out of all of us, how soon do you think this is going to let up?” Rose asks, raising her eyebrows just a little.

You open your mouth to protest that there’s no way you could know that, but no, no you do. You don’t know how, but you do, and it’s not soon. Which you’re pretty sure you say because Rose hums to herself and taps her lips. “There’s a hotel down the road,” she says. “We could stay there for the night.”

“Read my mind,” Dave dead-pans, and you know it’s _probably_ a joke, but would you be surprised?

Rose fishes an umbrella out of a pocket dimension and gives it to Jade to hold; your friends try to huddle underneath it, but you opt-out to test something on the walk. Jade takes care of your suitcase despite your insistences that you can handle it, folding it somewhere you don’t comprehend, and the four of you depart down the street.

The rain doesn’t feel cold.

It’s _wet_ , but that doesn’t bother you, even when your hair drips down the back of your shirt, even when the water soaks through your new shoes and the hems of your pants. You’re settled with the sensation that you’ll be fine, that this is good for you, that you’re supposed to be out in the wind and rain. Any nausea in your body is washed clean by the near torrential rain, any worries you had, any remaining hesitance to accept what life’s putting your hands. You could stand out here forever, you think, even though it sounds like it might be coming from somewhere other than your usual thought production lines. The rest of your thoughts decide that you’re not _going_ to, but you _could_. It’s a kind of peace you’re not sure you’ve ever known.

You’re soaking wet and you can’t see with all of the rain on your glasses but you’re smiling when someone takes your hand and pulls you in the right direction.

The realization that it’s generally rude to step into a hotel lobby soaking wet comes approximately two seconds after you cross the threshold of the hotel and find yourself a few stray raindrops short of bone dry. Jade, who was apparently the one to take your hand, looks as confused as you feel, but you shrug at her, and she makes a face back that conveys the depth of her unasked questions just fine. You’re also back near her eye level, even though you could’ve sworn you _walked_ over the threshold, on the ground, with your own feet.

You decide to push it aside.

The four of you get one room -- you’re going to be sharing a tent soon, it’s something you’ll need to get used to -- and it’s only when your back hits one of the beds that you realize how exhausted you feel. You could almost… if you just curled up…

“Legally,” Dave interrupts you falling asleep to say, from where he’s sitting on the floor, “I think this counts as a sleepover.”

“Which means?” Rose asks, cross-legged on the other bed, fawning over her hair.

“Which means we’re not falling asleep yet, it’s party time.”

Jade snorts, and you don’t get up but you do roll over to face him, because sure, a party doesn’t sound too bad. You’ll just have to remember to call your dad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this only indirectly has anything to do with this fic, but i recently started a playlist of just. a shit ton of homestuck music. as of tonight, it's a little over four hours and growing, and i figured i'd [share it](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOJMA4jJWhHTuNYIHiwlVOwlBRH2g6V2X) in case you wanted a bunch of random homestuck music in one place, lol


	6. > Rose: Learn something new

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emotions start to escalate when sisterly bonds are revealed, but it's a little bit too much for Rose. So she takes a walk and meets somebody she won't be able to forget.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well hi there! it's been a while! but i've got a new chapter for you : 3!! this one i actually drew art for before i even finished the chp, which i'll link at the end because it's kind of a spoiler, lol  
>  ~~this chp also contains more nd headcanons, so see if you can spot them lol~~  
>  something that is related to this fic but is too far into the future to be a spoiler just yet: i made a little interactive story! it ties into the plot of this fic and is coded using baby-basics c++ bcus part of the reason i took so long is because of my college classes jfklda. find it [here!!](https://repl.it/talk/share/rose-prophecy/54362) i highly recommend playing around with it, there are a bunch of unique ending texts and two branching paths.  
> anyway, onward!

You shouldn’t be surprised at Dave’s sudden insistence that sharing a hotel room counts as a sleepover when no previous claims had been made about your camping trip, but your surprise becomes amusement as soon as he stands from where he’d sat on the floor and puts his hands on his hips. “We’re unprepared,” he says almost accusingly, as if you three had somehow planned ahead to short him on sleepover supplies.

“Well, what do we need?” June asks.

You don't have to be looking directly at Jade to see her ears stand tall and alert as she gasps. "Wait, June, have you ever had a sleepover before?"

"... no?" June says. She crosses her arms despite still lying on her back, and you don't fully suppress your giggle at the sight. "I never really had anyone to invite over."

"So this has to be a standards-setting sleepover," Dave says, tapping his chin as if deep in philosophical thought (or as if someone else were to be in deep thought; Dave, you've noticed over the years of being his twin sister, prefers staring into his music equipment to ponder).

"Do you want to set high or low standards?" you ask.

"Really anything you do will probably be --" June starts to speak, but part of her sentence is lost in the ensuing Jade Harley brand super-hug.

“This’ll be so fun!” Jade says, and when she sits up she takes June with her, who starts to laugh even when her glasses are knocked askew. "We can do all the sleepover stuff you see sisters do in the movies!"

June opens her mouth to say something in between laughter, but her laughs slow down as she takes in what Jade said. You raise your eyebrows at Dave; he shrugs. He wasn't there for your conversation with Jade but you have to assume he's figured out that this wasn't how Jade planned to tell June, as you don't want to ruin the gears turning in June's head by explaining that to him.

"... what?" June finally asks when the room gets uncomfortably quiet.

She doesn’t pull away from Jade’s hug, you realize, just looks up at her with an eyebrow raised. Jade’s ears point out sideways and her eyes go wide. Her gaze turns to yours for a fleeting moment, but this isn’t your secret to divulge.

June looks at you, too, but her eyes aren’t panicked, just confused. You look away, suddenly interested in the hem of your skirt.

“Uhhh,” Jade starts. Her arms go slack, resting on her legs. She chews on the thought and her cheek. “So.”

When she doesn’t continue, June starts to look nervous. “Sorry, that just seemed like a weird choice of words,” she says, twirling her hair in her hands. “We can just forget it if --”

“No, no, no I wanted to tell you this anyway, um.” Jade steadies herself. “You remember how I mentioned my dad and how he went off to have adventures after I was born?”

“Yeah?” June wrinkles her nose at the mention of him.

“The first adventure on that list was… wooing your mom. Again, I think.”

The gears turning in June’s head are near audible. "My Nanna?" she clarifies.

Right. The adoption.

"Yeah," Jade responds. "Grandpa, my dad, is also. Your dad. Which is why he got you the phone that lets you use Pesterchum!"

The gears turn more. And then you watch, in real time, as the dots connect in June's mind and her eyes light up. "Wait, that means we're half-sisters!" she gasps, and Jade breaks out into a smile.

You stand without directing your body to do so, interrupting the waves crashing into Jade's mouth. All three of your friends look at you, confused. You open your mouth, close it, and then come up with an excuse. "I'm going to go gather supplies," you say, and you manage a smile to continue with, "Don't leave me out of too much fun while I'm gone."

And then you walk out the door.

There's no plan in your head as the door shuts but that's never stopped you before. You start walking down the hall, and it occurs to you that maybe getting supplies isn't a bad idea; you planned for a camping trip that requires things like tents and camping stoves and food that can be made in a single pot, not a sleepover with conveniences like a microwave and a TV and room service. You haven’t had a movie night in a while, and you know June likes movies (maybe it’s a family trait, considering your usual source of films), perhaps you can grab popcorn and some quick --

Your train of thought is interrupted when you turn the corner. Well, not so much interrupted as thrown three miles ahead and down an entirely different set of tracks, because standing in the hall with a phone in hand is the most beautiful woman you’ve ever seen.

She seems vaguely familiar, somehow, as if you knew her in another life (or seen her, somewhere, in a vision half-remembered). She’s tall, taller than you, with carefully styled dark hair and green eyes you barely catch a glimpse of and warm brown skin and long, pointed ears. She holds herself with an air of… not authority, no, that’s not the word. Of hidden power. An air that tells the deepest parts of your perception that despite her relatively normal figure she could strike you down in an instant. Maybe it’s the skirt, you think, bright red and patterned with stars, or the fact that she’s styled long, fingerless gloves with a short-sleeved turtleneck that you don’t think would work on anyone else. You’d swear you could see a halo of light around her head if it weren’t for the fact that no light radiates onto the night sky wallpaper behind her and you suspect it’s a trick of your own imagination.

The breath in your throat stirs, asking to be let go.

What’s her name?

You try to ask that very question but it doesn’t come out of your mouth.

A shake of the head, a deep breath. You resolve to try that again. She looks lost, anyway, maybe you can help her; you’re familiar with the hotel.

“Hello,” you say, moving to her within her line of sight with a wave. “Are you looking for something? You seemed lost.”

She looks at you and it takes every ounce of willpower not to melt under her eyes, which of course aren’t just _green_ , that wouldn’t be enough, they’re pure _jade_. When she smiles at you in relief, fangs peek out over her lips. _Oh_.

“I am, actually,” she says, chuckling. “I was supposed to be staying here tonight with some of my Housemates, but I can’t find where we had planned to meet for the evening.”

You hope your smile at her isn’t too intense. “If you’d like, I could help you navigate,” you say, and you hold out a hand. “Rose Lalonde.”

For a moment, she seems surprised, but it passes before being noteworthy. She shakes your hand, her nails perfectly manicured, and says, “Kanaya Maryam.”

Silence hangs in the air for a moment while neither of you lets go, but then Kanaya breaks down into giggles, and your face goes hot. “My apologies,” she says, waving the hand that was holding yours. “It’s nice to meet you, Rose.”

You laugh, too, because what else are you going to do? “The pleasure is all mine, Kanaya,” you reply. “Where is it you need to go?”

The look that crosses her face makes you wonder if she lied to you, but she gathers herself quickly. "A lounge of some sort," Kanaya says. "A movie theater, I think? Somewhere with snacks and activities to distract an eleven-year-old."

The confusion reaches your face before you can stop it; she mentioned Housemates, with the emphasis that usually implies that she and her fangs are unstuck and part of a House of Unstuck (perhaps the one you passed earlier?), but you've never heard of the ritual to break someone from time's influence being performed on someone as young as eleven. And you suspect Kanaya sees it before you can wipe the expression away, because she shifts her weight a bit and says, “She’s the charge of one of my Housemates."

“Ah, I see,” you say, smoothing out your curiosity. "An unusual arrangement?"

"Not for us." Kanaya looks fondly at her phone, the wallpaper of which you can't see. "Our Dolorosa is…"

She chews on the thought for a moment while you press the elevator button, but nothing seems to come to mind. You try to tune into the ground beneath your feet, try to listen for the distant calls the Belltower warns you about, but Kanaya chuckles at something and you can’t put your heart into it.

Your phone goes off.

turntechGodhead [TG] began pestering  tentacleTherapist [TT]

TG: so jade and june were wondering when youd be back and also can you grab popcorn

TG: june managed some techno shit i wasnt really paying attention to so weve got some movies i dont think ive seen jake bring over

TG: i know movies arent super your thing but i assume you want to participate and are definitely not getting distracted by an unstuck lady who i may or may not have seen in the lobby and neglected to point out

TT: I was planning on bringing popcorn, yes. Are there any other requests I should be aware of?

TG: ah gotcha so you are busy getting distracted

TG: good to know

TG: have fun with that but when you come back you should see if they have any of those boxes of pastries from the bakery down the street we ate the rest of my stash while they were talking about the logistics of magic blood relations  


TT: I’ll be sure to bring a fresh new box, somehow despite the pouring rain.

tentacleTherapist [TT] ceased pestering  turntechGodhead [TG]

You slide your phone into the pocket of your dress when the elevator door opens and gesture for Kanaya to go first, which she does with a curtsey that you suspect is tongue-in-cheek. You follow in after her, and despite yourself and the space, you find yourself standing close to her, not touching but suggesting a degree of familiarity you don’t think you can claim. She doesn’t seem to mind, at least, and as the elevator begins to move she speaks again.

“What brings you here tonight, Rose?” she asks, her own phone stashed away, jade eyes sparkling in the lights overhead. “If it’s not too rude of me to ask.”

“A respite from the rains,” you say, surprising yourself with how easy the words come to you. “My brother, some friends, and I are going on a camping trip once the sun decides to show itself again.”

Her smile emphasizes her fangs in a way that you swear is on purpose, because you’ve yet to meet anyone who can place their fangs perfectly to get your heart racing on _accident_.

“That sounds lovely,” Kanaya says. “I haven’t been camping in... “ She taps her lip, and you realize against her black lipstick that her nails are a deep, deep green, not black. “I’m not actually sure.”

You bite back your initial urge to invite her out on your camping trip; you’ve only just met her and she may well only be here for an overnight trip before returning to her House. “They’re something of a tradition by now,” you say instead. “The weather… well, it usually holds this long.”

If June’s arrival has anything to do with this storm, you’re not sure, but the thought crosses your mind when the elevator dings. It’s possible. Who would ever know who the spirit she consumed was?

The storm still beats at the windows when you step out of the elevator together. Kanaya considers it for a moment, her lips gently pursed, trying to remember something. “My silk moths might go to sleep early this year,” she muses. “If this rain holds up.”

“Silk moths?” you say. You don’t offer your arm to her, but you wait for Kanaya to join you before you start walking in the direction of the small, in-house movie theater.

Kanaya’s eyes light up like stars. “Yes!” she says, clapping her hands together even though the sound is muffled by her gloves. “I keep silk moths so I can make my own fabrics.”

She holds out her skirt, pulling into the light the stars' hidden depths and a soft, shiny glow to the fabric. Enchanted, if you had to guess. "I made this myself," Kanaya explains, and your heart skips a little beat at the joy in her voice. "Silk is a fabric that benefits from taking a lot of care from top to bottom of the process; I take pride in…”

Your walk to the movie theater is filled with her explanation, from how she raises her moths to the ratios of cocoons she uses for silk to cocoons she allows to hatch to ensure a healthy generation the next year. She tells you about her spinning wheel that her House’s matriarch (Dolorosa, you remind yourself, they call her the Dolorosa) gave her as a birthday gift, about the bedroom next to hers that she converted into a storage/dye room, about the trees that her caterpillars feed on gifted to the House by a relative she gives a name for that you recognize as a _chiyoni_ word but not what it means. The joy in her voice is as tangible as her phone half-cradled in your hands and half-cradled in hers when she shows you pictures of hundreds of caterpillars, of a loom with a half-finished project, of the dyeing room and its colorful soups. You feel warm, a light in your heart flaring up to a point where you hope your eyes aren’t shining.

If you’re walking slower than you usually do, considering Kanaya’s long legs and your practice keeping up with your brother’s strides, you’re both too entranced by the conversation to notice. You have somewhere to be, you know that. She has somewhere to be, you see it in her eyes and the texts at the top of her screen. But maybe you can put it off a little longer.

And then you’re at the movie theater.

The smell of popcorn lets you in on your arrival, and if it weren’t that the child’s voice calling out for Kanaya would’ve tipped you off next. Kanaya looks up from where you were showing her a violin sample Dave had asked you to record on your phone, and she smiles but she’s bracing herself and you start to wonder why --

An eleven-year-old comes crashing into Kanaya and you understand.

“Wanshi!” comes a voice, laughing but attempting to be stern.

Another woman, also Unstuck if you had to guess, comes around the corner; she’s taller than you but not quite as tall as Kanaya, with long black hair dyed with a strip of jade green. “Kanaya, you found us!” she says, clapping her hands together. “My apologies, Wanshi wanted to see what movies they have playing tonight.”

She pulls the girl -- Wanshi, probably -- aside, and you think she’s giving her a short list of points about something, but Kanaya is looking at you again and you find yourself drawn to her eyes. You could paint stars around them, you think.

“I suppose we’re here,” she says, chuckling. “Your friends must be missing you, I don’t want to --”

“Could I --” you stop for a second when you realize you interrupted her, but she raises her eyebrows and seems to want you to continue. “Could I perhaps have your… your phone number? I had a nice time speaking with you.”

Her fangs are dazzling. “I thought I was going to have to ask.”

You swap phones, and your hands do _not_ shake while you’re inputting her number, absolutely not. They would never.

She wishes you a good night and walks into the movie theater with her Housemates. You stand in the concessions area longer than you need to, and then collect as many snacks as you care to scoop into a dimension pocket, watching the lights as replacements pop into place with each sweep, and open Pesterchum to send some messages while your mind needs several things to hold onto.

tentacleTherapist [TT] began pestering  turntechGodhead [TG]

TT: I’m on my way back with snacks. Including your box of pastries as an apology for taking so long.

TG: youre good

TG: how was hanging out with the hot unstuck

TT: I will see you back at the room, Dave.

TT: ...

TT: But it was nice.

tentacleTherapist [TT] ceased pestering  turntechGodhead [TG]

tentacleTherapist [TT] began pestering  grimAuxillatrix [GA]  


TT: Hello, Kanaya, it’s Rose.  


TT: I know I already said this, but it was a pleasure to meet you tonight. Though I’m not sure when we’ll be back from our camping trip, perhaps we could meet up again sometime.  


GA: My House Isnt Too Far Away From Here  


GA: If You Come Back This Way Id Be Happy To Invite You In  


TT: I’d love to. But for now, goodnight, Kanaya.  


GA: Goodnight Rose

tentacleTherapist [TT] ceased pestering  grimAuxillatrix [GA]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you may have already guessed, but the [art was of Kanaya!!](https://www.deviantart.com/opalsweaterqt/art/A-Look-Into-The-Future-Through-Your-Eyes-852271633) so this is what she looks like in this au ^u^  
> i also drew [this meme about june!!](https://www.deviantart.com/opalsweaterqt/art/June-Meme-856364650)


	7. > Jade: Plan a sleepover

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose's exit leaves the remaining three soon-to-be-campers with some time to kill and a sleepover to plan. Family is discussed, pastries eaten, and a movie night set up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ONLY TOOK A MONTH AND A HALF THIS TIME FOLKS :D  
> but for real!! i actually had to restart this chapter over from the beginning, though i think the chapter benefited a lot from it  
> this one's mostly just goofs but they were fun to write and i hope they're just as if not more fun to read ^u^

The three of you left in the room watch Rose leave. When the door hisses shut behind her, you immediately turn to Dave and raise an eyebrow. He shrugs in response.

“Fuck if I know, she does this sometimes,” he says, shrugging and pulling several items from a pocket dimension without looking at his hands. “She’ll be back once she meets up with that Unstuck lady in the lobby, I bet.”

You didn’t see anyone in the lobby beside the four of you, and you can see the question about what an “Unstuck” is rising in June’s throat, but before any questions can reach the communal air space Dave sets a box of pastries on the pillow and they’re all tossed to the wind. You stand up to grab one for yourself and one for June, and Dave makes himself comfortable on the floor again with one, only visible because the bed is lower to the ground than even his slouch.

“In the meantime, then,” you say, and in a moment of inspiration you and your pastry climb onto the bed to stand up, ears threatening to brush the ceiling, one hand on your hip and pastry as high in the air as you can manage without getting it on the ceiling. “We have a sleepover to put in motion!”

June follows suit, standing from her seat on the bed and (accidentally?) pushing herself into the air, stabilizing just under your height. She crosses her legs, sitting on the air, and raises the pastry in her hand up to the height of yours and you can see a smile tugging at her lips but she remains mostly stoic. You hear something that might be a “well fuck why not” and Dave climbs onto his bed, raising his mostly-eaten pastry up too. There’s a beat. June’s fake stoicism wavers. You all exchange a glance.

And then June loses it completely and flips over in the air, laughing. At what, you’re not sure; the absurdity of the moment? The simple act of all three of you joining in? The abruptness of Rose’s exit catching up to you? You start laughing too, and so does Dave. Is it just the excitement of finally getting to tell a secret? Does it even matter? You let the momentum of the laughter carry you back onto the bed with a hearty bounce; Dave makes a movement you can only describe as “toppling” and lies down on the bed; June rights herself and gently floats down onto the sheets next to you, giving you a big buck-toothed grin that seems so distinctly _family_.

“So,” Dave says from where he’s lying on his back, “sleepover. There’s an entire childhood of sleepover experiences we need to catch Ms. June Egbert up on using negative time and camping supplies. Jade Harley, local sleepover expert, do you have a plan of attack?” His voice grows more and more like an exaggerated reporter, and by the end of his statement, he’s produced a microphone you didn’t know he’d brought with him, plugged into nothing, and held it out in your direction.

“I wouldn’t call myself an expert, but…” you trail off, leaning toward the outstretched mic while you think.

June pulls her phone out of her pocket while you think and throw out some ideas mock-interview style (scary stories, makeovers, just hanging out?) and enjoy your pastries. Out of the corner of your eye, you see her eyebrows furl at something, but before you can ask what she’s looking at her expression relaxes and she says, “What about a movie night? I’ve got some movies on my phone, and since you guys have smartphones you probably have movies, right?” You go to answer, but she gasps and adds, “Fantasy world cinema!”

“Movie night sounds great!” you say. “And if movie night gets boring we can mess around with hairstyles and games and scary stories.” You emphasize your last point by curling your fingers into their actual, very real, very shiny claws, and you hear Dave laugh when June jumps a little and nearly slips off the bed.

“What kind of movies are we talking?” Dave says, having pushed himself up to “comfortably” (you can hear his insistences that “yes, Jade, it _is_ comfortable to perch like a bird” without needing to ask) on the edge of the bed, his tail waving for balance.

June opens her mouth to start reading off titles, but she stops herself and turns to look at the TV nestled in a cabinet against the wall. “Do you think we could get my phone hooked up to the TV?” she asks.

You look between her phone and the TV. Considering it isn’t mirror world tech, then… probably? “It’s worth a shot!” you say, moving to sit next to her and look at her phone. “Especially since I don’t have any DVD’s on me.”

“Do… do you usually?” June asks.

You make a so-so motion with your hand. “Not on purpose?” is the best summary for your relationship to DVD’s and, “Our brother Jake runs stuff from the mirror world and since his favorite is movies, he gets a lot of movies! And then he gives me one he thinks I’ll like every time we meet up.”

When you meet them, June’s eyes are sparkling. “I have a brother, too?”

You don’t mean to laugh, really, so it comes out as more of a snort. June gives you a confused look, which she transfers to Dave when he explains from the corner he ended up in when you weren’t looking, “Not just one.”

"I mean, I have my dad, but…?" June says, her voice tinier than you've ever heard it.

"He means on Grandpa's side," you explain. "As far as we know --" June's eyebrows shoot up -- "there's six of us, in total. Two brothers and four sisters!"

"As far as you _know_?" June repeats. When you nod, she goes, "Huh! Well, that explains why he and Nanna were only high school sweethearts." She laughs, and you smile.

She'd get along with everyone, you think. Jake, you're bound to run into eventually, maybe you can detour to meet Joey and Jude sometime! And Jane… you frown internally. Last you heard she was still in denial, and you don't want to put June in danger to visit her.

You shake your head, gently as possible, and dismiss the thought. It's sleepover time! You should be in the here and now!

Which starts with helping June mess around with her phone and the TV, trying out any combination of buttons and settings you can think of, all set to a smooth, calm tune that sounds suspiciously like one of Rose’s favorite violin pieces set to a steady beat coming from the corner where Dave is messing with his music equipment. You hear June hum pieces of the tune and then get lost when something Dave added in comes up; you know you're swaying to the music. You wish Rose was here to enjoy it with you, but you’re sure she’ll be back in her own time.

"What are they like?" June asks at the same time Dave asks, "I'm hungry, who wants to finish off my pastry stash?"

A beat. You say, "Our half-siblings?" when June gives an enthusiastic, "Yes please!"

With a nod toward June, Dave pulls down the box of pastries he left on the bed and digs through for whichever he was saving for himself before giving the rest a gentle magic toss to you and June; June slides it just past you, halfway down the bed. And you begin to think, trying to gather your thoughts toward and about your four other half-siblings; you’re not sure how to catch June up on four different lives, three of which have context she has yet to experience, or if you should even bother with that or just tell her the basics. You’ll just… have to do your best! Summarize a bit!

June doesn’t look up from her phone or the pastry she’s eating, but you know well enough that she’s waiting for you.

“Jake’s the closest in age to us,” you start. “Like two, three years older than me? He’s human, but Rose insists that he has some unintentional divine blessing because of what he gets away with. Kind of oblivious but he tries his best. He was in training to do farm-hand stuff but at some point, he decided to just stick to running stuff from the mirror world. We didn’t grow up together or anything, so I only see him when we’re in the same area or he asks for help with a shipment.”

You take a bite out of a pastry (and realize, somewhere mentally where you’re not distracted, that every single one of these is a different kind of apple pastry). “He has an older sister. Her name is Jane, but I don’t know much about her; she’s in pretty stubborn denial that this,” you gesture around you, “is real, so she lives full-time in the mirror world. We’ve never met, so…” You shrug.

It’s just one of those things. You’d love to, but crossing the Divide isn’t something you like doing, not when you feel most comfortable somewhere in the middle of your body’s sliding scale, not when Jane refuses to accept any of Jake’s day-trip invites. Especially not now, when June is still in her early stages of magic and would be in more danger than you or even Rose and Dave.

“...I had a half-sister on the same planet as me the whole time?”

“She doesn't keep in touch, she probably doesn’t even know you exist? ...Actually, I don’t think Jake does either?”

What was turning into mournful energy emanating from June switches to snorts of laughter and trying not to choke on a piece of pastry faster than a pin drop. You want to laugh along, but you’re not sure what she’s laughing at.

“Sorry,” she says after calming a bit. “I just imagined how funny it’d be to have a dramatic reveal.” She gestures with a half-bow, something very magician-esque, and if you hadn’t seen stranger things you would’ve been in awe that a flash of light runs across the sign on her chest. “‘Lady and gentleman, the sister you never had!’ With the smoke machine and everything.”

That does make you laugh. You didn’t even think of the smoke machine; you’re no magician-/comedian-in-training, so the finer details hadn’t occurred to you and your thoughts turned to simply covering June in a sheet and pulling it away while attempting to maintain the composure of all those around to witness. And considering you can’t even keep your composure imagining it that would likely be a failure.

Actually, Jake might get a kick out of that. You file it away for later.

“We might just have to arrange that,” you joke, nudging her with your elbow. You almost continue with the joke, but two people come to mind. “Oh! There’s also Joey and Jude. They’re the oldest of the six of us, I think their mom was fae-touched so Grandpa liked her a lot. We’ve only met once but they both seem nice! Joey’s a dancer who works in magic creature care on the side and Jude’s a divination professor at Central.”

“Like, magic divination?”

“... are there other kinds?”

June opens her mouth, closes it, and shrugs. “I guess it’s all magic? Just the stuff I’m thinking of is fake magic.” She pauses. “Is it real magic?”

Dave chimes in before you can; you suppose he is related to your local divination expert. “Nah, you remember earlier, right? Magic can’t survive in the mirror world, even for minor stuff.”

“Not without a host,” you specify.

June looks a little queasy.

She takes a bit of pastry instead of asking follow-up questions.

After a beat, you turn your attention back to her phone; she’s had the phone most of her life and you’ve built rockets, really this shouldn’t be hard. It’s almost, almost connected, you can feel it, and the distraction from family dynamics and the oft-present knowledge that you could die on the other side of a planar divide is welcome. Dave continues to play music much to the delight of your tapping fingers and wagging tail.

“Fuck yeah!” June cries out when the spinning wheel closes out and the TV flickers to life.

On the TV is June’s home screen, which you hadn’t noticed until now is a picture of a black and gray rabbit taking up most of June’s lap while she sits in grass, eating something out of her hand. And June is small, at least compared to you, but you can tell just from looking at it that if it were in the room you’d still think the rabbit was massive. It comes back to you when June coos, “Aww, Liv!” that this must be one of the rabbits she mentioned leaving with her dad when she moved for college.

Behind you, there’s a _fwump_ and you turn to see Dave lying on his back on the other bed (how his sunglasses never fall off, you’ll never know), “Oh shit, nice, you got it working,” is the first thing out of his mouth, and when June sticks her lip out just a bit, arms crossed, presumably expecting a comment on the rabbit picture instead of the technological achievement, the second thing becomes, “Fantastic rabbit you got there, easily ten out of ten carrots.”

“That’s doing her a disservice,” June says; she’s trying not to smile and you pick up on the bit in a heartbeat.

“Yeah, Dave! She’s at least an eleven out of ten,” you say, mirroring June’s fake arms-crossed stoicism.

Dave points at you. “Thirteen out of ten.” A good counter and he’s a lot better at maintaining a flat expression than you.

“Fifteen out of ten.”

“Twenty out of eleven.”

June makes a noise somewhere between an alarm buzzer and a deflating balloon, her expression cracking. “Invalid measuring scale, Dave is disqualified!”

“Damn, thought that was an ace up my sleeve,” Dave jokes. He holds his hand out vaguely in your direction and nowhere near close to being actually shakeable. “Good game Harley, if a short one.”

You can’t pass that up. You make the world’s most useless space tunnel to shake his hand. “A shattering win, for sure.”

Dave’s facade dissolves and he grins, tail lazily swirling in the air behind him. “Shit, almost forgot,” he says a second later, summoning his phone to his hand. “What snacks are we after for this movie night? Rose isn’t back yet, she might be able to get some.”

“When _is_ she going to be back?” you ask no one in particular.

Shrugging, as Dave discovers, does not work sideways.

“Popcorn is pretty much vital for movies, though,” June adds. She glances down, then, “Also, we’re out of pastries.”

“Popcorn, pastries, Rose’s current location, got it,” Dave says, texting away.

June flops back onto the bed and you watch the TV as she opens her photos and scrolls through them, you guess looking for something. There are sunrises and sunsets, storms outside of windows, times for local magic shows, rabbits in people’s yards munching on food scraps… you watch them go by and wonder for each one what she was thinking at the time, trying to piece together a life you only got to see in snippets through its snapshots. Some seem obvious, but others… you can’t figure out why June has a selfie gesturing to an empty field, though you can’t shake the feeling you’ve seen it somewhere before.

“Idea,” Dave says.

“Idea?” you and June echo.

“We push the beds together to make a mega-bed.”

“Dave, you’re a genius.”

“I try.”

The three of you roll/hop off of the beds and start reorganizing everything -- beds together, one blanket down to merge the sheets, the others spread across for warmth options, pillows thrown wherever they happened to land when June realized she could dunk them as if playing basketball (“it’s not cheating if floating's just a thing I can do, right?”). Dave lines up all of the porcelain figurines from Ms. Paint’s shop on the headboard, each of them sitting in… eerily familiar poses (Did the Mini Rose always have a book?). But they do look cute! June manages to pull the TV cabinet a little closer to the bed and you put together a stand for her phone for easy movie control. A spot toward the foot of the bed for snacks, plenty of room for all horns, ears, and tails in the party.

“It looks great!” you say, putting your hands on your hips, tail wagging. “Now we just wait for Rose to come back!”

“Has she texted you?” June asks Dave as he drags his music equipment over to the side of the bed.

“Hmm?” he looks over. “Yeah, she did, promised to bring snacks.”

June nods and settles into one of the blankets. None of you are in pajamas, but you can wait until Rose gets back to do that, you suppose. Then the party can --

Two things happen at once.

A notification shows up, ever so briefly, on the TV, and June says, “Oh, that golgothasTerror person is texting me again.”

The door opens and you see Rose with a lovestruck expression you haven’t seen in ages.

You nearly knock over the figurines with your tail, because this just got a lot more exciting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you're wondering about everyone's family: don't worry, in due time ;)  
> also, i was going to make this the sleepover chapter -- like, the actual events of the sleepover -- but i felt like the scene wrapped up a lot better where it ended here, so the sleepover itself is next! i can't wait to see you then!!
> 
> (.... also. so i made a discord server for this fic on a whim. would that be something y'all would be interested in? i can post the invite if anyone would want to be in it!!)
> 
> update: [the server's open!](https://discord.gg/kkBHkBqEu2) as of editing this note, there aren't too many people, so don't be shy! we'd love to have you ^u^


	8. > Dave: Participate in the sleepover

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The recently united circle of friends finally put their sleepover plan into action. Music magic makes a surprise appearance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay, so!!!  
> 1\. yay it only took me 28 days this time : D!!! let' see if i can keep those numbers down  
> 2\. a heads up! this chapter has, as you may have guessed, music involved! i've linked the youtube videos where they appear in text and will try to make them stand out a bit. if you can't click on those for whatever reason, i'll have the songs in the end note so you can look them up!!  
> i hope you enjoy!!

You called it.

Specifically, the part about Rose looking smitten when she walks in the door, not so much about the texts June is getting from someone she doesn’t recognize by name. So you focus on the part you knew about first and say, "What's her name?"

"Kanaya," Rose says without thinking. She puts a hand over her mouth a second later, which turns into her making an "I'm watching you" movement.

"Kanaya is who?" June asks. "Someone you guys know?"

“Just someone I met,” Rose insists, waving her hand. “She’s staying out the rain here as well.”

Jade smiles and leans on one hand. "Was she cute?" she asks.

Rose rolls her eyes, crossing her arms despite the grin tugging at her mouth. “I thought I was coming back to a sleepover, not an interrogation,” she says.

Oh, you can play this game. “That suggests the two are mutually exclusive,” you counter. You pull your book out from… somewhere, you’re not really sure, and tap the cover. “The data says sleepovers are prime time for interrogations regarding gossip and mysterious hallway meet-cutes.”

“The data doesn’t lie,” Rose!” June adds, nodding her head in a very academic way.

You gesture to June. Jade is giggling under her breath. Rose, for a moment, thinks.

“Is bribery an option out of this interrogation?” And a box appears in her hand that smells suspiciously of apples, berries, and way too much sugar.

“I can offer a postponement,” Jade says first.

You pretend to think it over for a second to keep up the bit, but you really do want the pastries and to actually get around to the sleepover that the mega-bed was crafted for. There’ll be plenty of interrogation time on the camping trip.

“I second Jade’s postponement offer,” you say.

“I don’t… entirely know what the big deal is, so me too?” June chimes in.

“I accept your terms,” Rose says.

And then her expression cracks and she laughs. The pastries are given a loving home in the middle of the mega-bed, slightly closer to June and a spot presumably held for Rose on account of them having short arms. Rose settles into her spot and starts talking after grabbing a purple-iced pastry. “I did bring more than these pastries, but it seems as though we’re not quite ready to start the movie.”

“How so?” June asks.

“None of us are in our pajamas,” Rose replies as if it were obvious. “I believe that is a prerequisite for sleepovers, is it not? While dressed we’re primed to leave at any time.”

“We were waiting for you, duh!” Jade teases, nudging Rose with her elbow.

You can tell Rose is touched by the statement but she doesn’t say anything specific about it. The four of you scatter to the wind to get dressed -- you hear Jade walking June through the basics of a pocket-summoning spell -- and you try to avoid knocking over the box of pastries and June’s phone stand in the process of getting dressed for rest (you should write that down). You’re done first on account of being fast at changing and having time powers -- and so what if an older Chosen Devoted told you that that’s a “waste” of “divine blessings,” they’re not a finite resource and you never asked for time powers in the first place, using them for dumb shit is well within your rights -- so you start pushing things around to everyone’s claimed spots and designate people’s personal snack circles for when you inevitably divide up the movie resources. Firmly planted in your spot, you start going through June’s phone for movie ideas (one is called “Strange (and legal) Things You Can Do With Your Body After Death,” which piques your interest, but after you tap it you realize it’s less than twenty minutes long, so not a movie night candidate). Jade flops on her stomach on the bed next to you and watches you scroll.

“See anything cool?” she asks.

“Define ‘cool.’”

“I think that’s your job, Mr. Dave ‘coolest guy around’ Lalonde.”

"I'm the example sentence, not the dictionary definition," you say. "The dictionary stuff is your job."

"I'd think it was Rose's!" Jade says in mock surprise. “I’m supposed to be on track to become a grove lord, who has time to write a dictionary when you’re doing that?”

Rose laughing interrupts your back-and-forth, and she and June appear from around the corner, marking everyone as officially ready to have a killer sleepover. You hand June her phone to look through while everyone gets settled in and Rose disperses the absolute chaos of snacks she brought -- did she seriously just take the entire movie theater snack bar? Because that's what it looks like she's pulling out of her dimensional pocket. You don't mind, of course, more snacks is more snacks and your "eating full meals is weird" thing appreciates the bounty she's provided, but it seems out of character. Maybe that cute Unstuck actually threw her off her game as bad as you'd planned to tease her.

"How is that whole grove lord shit?" you ask Jade while June narrows down the choices to presumably a top three choice.

Jade shrugs and based on facial expression alone you'd think she was mostly neutral, but her tail is wagging gently. "It's really not something I have to worry about?" she says. "It's pretty common to play by ear."

"I suppose you've got all the time in the world," Rose remarks.

June looks up from her phone at the three of you but says nothing (for now) (you don't even want to think about explaining fae politics while you're supposed to be getting your chill on, so putting that off as long as possible is perfect). You settle in with a bag of chips when June says, "Ooh, what about this one?"

The movie June points out on the screen is called “Absolution,” which is about a professional magician turned small-town monster hunter falling in love with a pacifist vampire with a gardening habit -- not exactly in those words, but when have you ever stuck to the official words -- which sounds fun, nothing scary like the sleepovers you and Rose had as kids, though you suppose June did just have her life turned upside down so maybe this fluffy vampire romance is the cure for trans-dimensional relocation blues. Also, vampires are, you're pretty sure, one of the mirror world versions of Unstuck, so you'll have the perfect opportunity to tease Rose and get more information out of her about the lady from the lobby.

"That sounds so cute!" Jade says, clapping her hands together. "I can't believe Jake hasn't brought this one over for you, Rose."

“It’s pretty new?” June says. “I heard it’s based on a podcast and making it took forever.”

“Vampire romances have truly stretched across all mediums,” Rose says, though you don’t think she meant it to come across as wistful as it does (which an adolescence of reading cheesy mirror world supernatural romance will do to you, you think for neither the first nor last time).

“Then let’s enjoy some medium and dimensional crossing vampire romance!” you say, resisting the urge to throw your chips into the air as an unofficial starting flag.

The moment the movie starts, your careful organization of snacks and individuals falls apart, because apparently, all sleepover snack rules go out the window when you’re uniting a friend group separated by a metaphysical divide for a debatable number of years. You’d say hard work wasted, but then you steal some of Rose’s hot chips while she sets June’s phone back on its stand so maybe it was just a means to an end you didn’t intend (you should write that down, too).

Rose pulls nail polish and some random tools for it out of the air, and because none of you turned the lights off the glint off of the custom purple metal catches June’s eyes. She looks between the movie and where Rose carefully, carefully is starting to take off the nail polish she was wearing, then down to her hand and back again. There’s a question on the tip of her tongue, you know that face well enough by now, but instead of pushing it you set your sunglasses somewhere that’s probably in a dimensional pocket and move over _just_ slightly.

“Hey, Rose?” June asks, taking some of your space.

Rose makes a noise of acknowledgment. Nothing dismissive -- Rose is good at that -- but concentrative, like the nail polish she’s trying to take off is a stubborn stitch in a knitting project.

“Could I borrow some nail polish?”

“Of course,” Rose says. “That’s a rather traditional sleepover activity, isn’t it? Painting each other’s nails?”

June grins and shifts to be a little closer to Rose. You and Jade move to accommodate, and you find yourself flopped on your back, sunglasses still somewhere you’ll probably find them later, Jade’s tail only occasionally hitting you in the face because she’s nice. “How’s the movie fairing, Jade?” you ask, lazily tracing out scales in the air; as much as you’re enjoying how soft the mega-bed is and how close the snacks are to your face, you still need to stock up on teasing material.

“The main actress seems really nice!” Jade says. “The vampire hasn’t shown up yet, but the magician is driving across the country chasing something mysterious.”

“Mysterious as in?”

“Mysterious as in a letter from a seemingly lost-touch relative.”

“Damn, I thought it was going to be mysterious disappearances.”

“There’s no reason for it to be mysterious disappearances, though,” June adds in. You turn to see where she’s stopped painting Rose’s nails with a sparkling (holographic?) magenta and made a “duh” face. “Aubrey’s not a detective, mysterious disappearances have no effect on her career.”

“A beckoning letter from a long-lost relative is much more intriguing to a young magician out on her own for the first time.” Rose examines her nails as she talks, nonchalant and pretending to consider what colors to put on her other hand. “Especially out to what I presume is some kind of enchanted forest.”

June makes a waving motion with one hand. “She doesn’t _know_ it’s enchanted yet? Just that it’s a small town in West Virginia.”

“I don’t know what a West Virginia is, but I still stand by mysterious disappearances being the better plot point,” you say, and you’d cross your arms to make your point but you have a pastry in your hand and you don’t want to crush it.

“I wouldn’t worry about it, West Virginia was just made up by podcasters.”

That doesn’t sound true, but you don't have the knowledge or energy to refute it.

To June’s credit and despite the inferior cross-country drive motivation, once the magician (Aubrey) actually gets to the small town, things get interesting. Interesting enough, in fact, that you sit up to watch and doodle back and forth with Jade while June and Rose do complicated nail designs for each other. Most of the secret identity tropes you know about are in full swing -- to be expected with mirror world supernatural romances, really -- but that’s not a bad thing. Plus the first time the vampire bares her fangs in a big hiss you hear Rose’s breath catch somewhere in her chest.

What _really_ catches your attention, though, is the music; as fun as the plot is, the music hooks into the parts of your brain that pick apart soundtracks and threatens to tug you away from the drawing contest you’re having with Jade.

You’re not a bard. You could be, if you really wanted to, Time isn’t super exclusive about what their Devoted do with the magic that comes with being Chosen. You like music magic but that’s on accident because mostly you just like music and happen to be really fucking good at magic. But you’re not, technically, a bard.

Which makes it strange when you hear a swell in the music and a magic that shouldn’t be there implodes on your senses the way your brother always describes, hijacking your hand away from the extremely accurate (see: not particularly accurate at all) drawing of Bec and tracing out a handful of notes that you don't remember composing. A fizzle, a pop, the overhead lights go out. The TV is your only light source, paused on hands grasped together. There's… quiet. Everyone stops talking and you're not sure if that's better or worse. There's a [tune](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8aZFD8ic9A) playing, somewhere, but you can't place where and your temptation to blame the movie stops dead in its tracks when you notice that someone paused it.

"I'm guessing you hear that too?" Jade asks.

"The music? Is that not… from next door or something?" June asks.

It might be, you try to say. The words don’t come out of your mouth. The darkness eats at something in your mind. The itching feeling that you know what’s next scratches at your ribcage.

Rose closes her eyes, furrowing her brows, concentrating. You try to do the same. You could swear on the Belltower’s bricks you’ve never heard the tune before, but something about it feels so… familiar.

“Wait.”

June’s voice makes you open your eyes. She’s staring down at her hands, nails painted lovingly in blues, fingers poised in a practiced rest. She doesn’t look up, but you look at Rose, then Jade, then behind you at the figurines. They’re not moving, or making any noise, but… okay maybe they are moving? Mini-June’s arms twitch and the music from before stops. New music starts up, much closer to you, and when you turn around June is playing a spectral blue piano. In the light of the TV and the rain, she glows like a spirit.

Well. Um.

At least June looks like she’s as surprised as the rest of you are.

She’s not [playing](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osexhtXkYD8) the same music that you heard at first, at the very least because the only sound in the room is the piano, but the sense of familiarity is unmistakable. It’s that sensation, the feeling that you _know_ this song, that you have a part in this [song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSHTEH1kT1A) that you're missing your cues for. The music paws at your magic like one of your mom’s kittens and the hesitance in some of June’s notes echo in the lashing rain outside. You don't… know what to do.

But Rose does.

Which you know because the piano swells and then Rose is holding her violin, playing along, the bow glimmering with her sharp purple-pink magic. You know Rose has a part in this song, she must've gotten her cue, and yours is soon, and Jade's and --

And you didn't know that a second ago. But now you do, and you're not sure how you could've ever not known it. This is easy shit, c'mon Dave, get with the program; of course you know this song. You heard it…

Somewhere, probably.

With that thought swimming around, you don’t have to think about meeting your cue too hard. Your mixer appears in your lap and washes your waiting hands in its comforting as ever red light. Whatever you had loaded onto it earlier, the buttons spill out percussion you don’t think you could name in time with Rose and June. The pawing sensation fades to the comforting hum of a well-done spell, the kind that feels like a fireplace and hot chocolate after falling face-first into the snow. No name for the spell comes to mind, nor what it even _does_ , but maybe that doesn’t matter? Maybe Lady Fate just decided to give you the chance to jam out in person instead of over soundbites and a lot of wrestling with audio calls. Maybe it’s Time giving the night a little more… time. Whatever it is, you don’t want to break your concentration and ruin it.

There’s another swell in the music -- this one isn’t hesitance like the first, it’s like the song is taking a deep breath, anticipating something -- and in Jade’s hands is something that might be a polished white metal flute if it weren’t radiating a dizzying green and making it hard to look at. You’re a little surprised (Jade’s usually more inclined to bass) but her first note rings out and the universe exhales. You get it. It’s perfect.

The song finds itself, now, the spell wraps up its loose ends and ties its intentions together, all four of you playing in sync, all to the rhythm of the rain on the windows, the room and your faces cast in the lights of magic, and you feel absolutely, overwhelmingly… okay. Happy, even, ecstatic. Nostalgic. The feeling makes a nest for itself in your chest and something in you promises to keep it safe.

Instrument by instrument, the [song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osexhtXkYD8) winds down. June’s piano and Jade’s flute disappear into the air, and Rose sets her violin behind her, leaning against the wall. You float your mixer over to the corner where you’d stashed it in the first place.

“...that was… nice,” Rose says, slowly, prodding the silence with scientific care.

“Yeah, yeah it was fun!” Jade agrees.

June chuckles, looking a little shaken. “So I guess I can summon pianos?”

“That might just be a you thing,” you say, and then add the clarification of: “Separate from the weather magic and shit.”

She hums something that was probably supposed to be a response and instead comes across as June starting to fall asleep where she’s sitting. She is, actually, falling asleep on Jade’s shoulder, and it occurs to you that June has had magic for less than twenty-five hours. You want to start the pre-weird-shit activities again, but maybe you should just let her recover.

Someone unpauses the movie either way. June curls up under a blanket after mumbling something to Jade, glasses set off to the side; Jade cracks a joke about being a guard dog all over again, but her eyelids get heavy long before yours do; Rose offers to paint your nails while you wait out the end of the movie and the crash that accompanies it.

Not the sleepover you were imagining, okay. But you can grill Rose about Kanaya later and you can all watch a movie anytime you really want, and now you have snacks for the trip. A win-win situation.

The last thing you see as you fall asleep is the shadow of six wings dart by the window.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the first song: Jade's pesterquest theme! alternative ideas (wow bonus content) were [October](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxGetHFYsw8) (from the hs soundtrack) and [Sburban Jungle](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOSnen64a7M)  
> the second song: so the song itself is technically called "Babylon Of The Occident - The Shanghai Restoration Project" but if you just search "Beta Kids: Play Haunting Refrain" it shows up that way as well!!  
> (also yes, the movie is a taz amnesty reference, and all of the nail polish i described is based on polishes i actually own!! i use the holo magenta one for rose designs a lot)
> 
> so yeah! hope you had a good time, camping trip starts up next, you should join the discord! i post memes about this fic and sometimes there are previews of future chapters ; ) ~~(a lot of times there are previews on future chapters, on account of me writing out of order and me taking a month to write a chapter)~~


	9. > June: Reflect in the morning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> June faces her first morning in a brand new world and almost, almost has a peaceful start to the journey. Dave has an angry conversation, Jade braids some hair, and Rose tries to figure out why chaos is so attracted to her friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> eyyyy it's only been *checks notes* 28 days!! i'm hoping to get into at least a once-a-month rhythm and then maybe even more than that?? we'll have to see!!  
> either way, glad to be back, this chapter turned out _way_ longer than i anticipated jfkldsa eventually they'll actually get around to going camping  
> this one also has some fun worldbuilding!! and no matter what, as always, i hope you enjoy ^u^

You have never been so rested and so exhausted at the same time in your entire life. You wake up in pajamas you’re not used to yet with no pillow under your head and your blanket tangled around one leg and three-quarters of your shoulders.

It takes a second to sink in.

Yesterday comes back to you when you start to sit up and almost disturb Jade, sleeping about a foot away, her ears twitching in her sleep. The memories roll over you in waves -- the light creature, the floating, the shopping trip, whatever that piano was, you and Jade are sisters, you…

You pull the blanket over your head and spend a few minutes just… breathing. Breathing with your eyes closed because every time you take a deep breath little blue curls accompany your exhale and seeing them makes your stomach feel funny. It’s real, that part you’re sure of, you remember too much for it to have been the world’s weirdest nap-turned-night’s-sleep dream. But knowing it’s real doesn’t make it feel any less strange. Just… gotta breathe. In, out, in, out, like Dad taught you! And maybe you can call him later (like you meant to last night, fuck!), because he seemed to know what was going on when he called you, and since he’s taking care of your stuff anyway maybe he can give you advice on moving on such short notice. Maybe get you your own pajamas back. Not that the ones Jade picked for you aren’t comfortable, you just… you’re craving a reminder of home, you guess. To help you adjust, like the first time you moved.

...

You should get up.

You’re the first one awake; despite your movements, Jade barely reacts as the bed dips underneath her and Dave and Rose, judging by Rose’s deep breathing and the way Dave’s tail is flitting back and forth, are both still dreaming. The sun hasn’t fully risen yet, washing the room in deep orange. You swear you see orange fingers on the top windowsill, but by the time you get to the window after wrapping the blanket around your shoulders, they’re gone. Nothing greets you at the window but a single, bright orange feather drifting in the wind and the smell of rain-washed grass and earth. You catch the feather and set it aside.

The summoning spell Jade showed you yesterday takes a few tries to get right, but eventually, you get ahold of your suitcase from between the cracks in reality. The blue outfit with the wind patterns calls your name when you open the suitcase; you stare at it for a moment, but the craving for normalcy falls over you and you grab the shirt that looks suspiciously like someone saw a _Ghostbusters_ poster for two seconds and tried to make a shirt based on it to throw over some jeans. _Ghostbusters_ is a good movie, you think absentmindedly while you get dressed. Maybe you can watch it when you go camping; after all, your phone hasn't lost battery or service since your sudden arrival on this side of the Divide. A weird perk of being here, you guess. None of your friends seem to have chargers or even to be concerned about their phones. Have you even seen any outlets in the hotel room?

While putting your pajamas back into your suitcase and getting out the rest of what you need to get ready, you shoot a glance around the room. Nothing, no outlets or, peeking behind the TV, even places to connect electronics. The logical answer is, of course, magic, but now that you’ve noticed it you feel haunted by their absence your entire walk to the bathroom.

Your glasses are dirty. The thought interrupts you while you're brushing your hair, the cool light of the bathroom highlighting smudges from when you fell asleep on them.

"G’morning, June!"

Jade's voice makes you jump; without your glasses on, you hadn't noticed her get up. She doesn't have her glasses on, either, when you turn to her and if you're not mistaken her hands look more like paws than you remember. She rubs at her eyes and gives you a tired smile. “Morning, Jade,” you reply.

Her glasses appear on her face in a flash of green light and when she stretches her hands come down looking like you expect them to. “Ready to go camping?” Her smile is sharp, but not unwelcoming.

You move aside to let Jade brush her hair and think about your reply while trying to fumble yours into a braid. “I think so,” you say. Your fingers aren’t working; you slip your glasses on and blink a few times as the world comes into focus. “Why were you guys going camping, anyway?”

“It was Rose’s suggestion! Ever since I moved out of Bec’s grove we try to go a couple of times a year and she said she wanted to visit a new spot when there wouldn’t be a lot of people.”

Oh. You don't say your _oh_ out loud because you don't want Jade to take it the wrong way, but you think it. Rose joking about their invites yesterday tastes bitter in your mouth. You could've been doing that, too, but you were an idiot too caught up in --

"June, do you want help with your hair?" Jade's looking at you but she probably can't read your thoughts because she doesn't look offended or upset. "I could braid it for you!"

Your fingers are tangled in your hair, you realize; you have an old habit of tugging on it when you get upset and whatever progress you'd made on styling it was unraveled in the battle against pulling chunks of hair out at the roots. You could use the help, you guess, and you haven't had anyone brush your hair for you in a while. "Sure!" you say, giving Jade the biggest smile you can muster and your hairbrush.

Jade looks elated. You float up to meet her height -- floating is the one thing you have a handle on, really -- and she untangles the knots you put back in it with a gentle care. Some part of you wants to talk, feels like you _should_ talk (you’ve never had a problem talking to Jade before), but you can’t think of anything to say. Jade hums a song under her breath, something you’ve never heard before; you feel a little better when you close your eyes and just listen to her. When she sets aside the brush to grab hair ties, she adds words, soft and timeless, distinctly like the sensation of lying under the stars. The words are in a language you can’t understand and run along nerves that you progressively realize are not physical but magical. It feels like touching a plasma ball with your brain.

Both Jade’s song and your morning getting less existential are interrupted when you hear someone slam into a piece of furniture and a very sleepy Dave shout, “Fuck!”

“Was that _really_ necessary?” Rose says.

Your braid falls over your shoulder when Jade lets go. She looks at you, raising an eyebrow, and you shrug. “They were both asleep when I got up?” you say.

“Me too,” Jade says. Louder, she calls, “Dave, are you okay?”

Muffled swearing. “He’s fine,” Rose calls back. “He seems to have stubbed his torso while looking at something.”

Okay, what? You float out to the main space above the bed, and you see Dave by the windowsill, one arm wrapped around his stomach and the other holding the feather you found outside. “The feather?” you ask.

Dave’s nose is wrinkled and he doesn’t seem to be listening. “I believe so,” Rose says. “Or, at least, that’s currently what he’s fixating on. Did you find the feather, June?”

“It was floating around outside? I just thought it looked cool.”

“Interesting.”

Jade pops back out of the bathroom as Rose passes her to go in, joining you in watching Dave… stare at a feather. “That feather looks pretty magical,” Jade remarks in a half-whisper. “Maybe that’s what’s got him all flustered about it.”

You try to match her volume. “You live in a magic world but a magic feather is too much?”

“It’s divine,” Dave says, shocking you both (you hadn’t realized he could hear you).

He hasn’t taken his eyes off of it, which is a little unnerving, and you’ve never noticed how red his eyes are until now. He’s not… mad, you don’t think? At least not at you? But he’s clearly not happy about whatever it means. You and Jade watch in silence.

Dave doesn’t say anything else. He stuffs the feather in his pocket, grabs his weird book from nowhere, and walks into the hall. 

“Um.” Jade scratches her cheek. “June, do you think you could help me braid my hair? I need to do something.”

“Yeah, of course!”

What that entails is slightly more complicated than braiding your own hair, but she did your hair, and it’s a nice way to pass the time while Rose gets ready and Dave takes care of whatever was happening with the feather and his book. You split Jade’s hair into two sections, and as you braid them she occasionally passes you a small colored hair tie and tells you to put it on a specific strand. She’s tapping out something on her leg while you go, but you just assume it has to do with the hair ties and don’t ask about it.

“Did you have any weird dreams last night, June?” Jade asks mid-way through her second braid while handing you a neon-green hair tie.

You think. “No, I slept pretty hard.”

“Oh, huh.”

A thought occurs to you when you stretch out your leg to make room for where you’re putting the band on the middle section of her braid and the muscle protests. “Um, this might be a dumb question, but is magic supposed to be exhausting?”

“It can be! You did a lot yesterday, I wouldn’t be surprised if it tired you out.”

“Is _your_ magic exhausting?”

Jade shrugs the shoulder not tapping on her leg. “Not really? Not unless I do something big, like teleport a lot of people, but I was born with most of my magic. So when I do this --” she puts her hand out and in it, a ball of green light appears, “-- that doesn’t take a lot of energy!”

That makes sense, you guess. Learning things is easier for kids than adults in general and you didn’t even have time to prepare for a series of magic pop-quizzes. “I’ll just have to practice, then,” you say. “I picked up that summoning spell pretty quickly.”

“Oh, that’s great! We can show you more while at the camping spot, too, you’ll have more room to practice the bigger stuff.”

You finish Jade’s braid with a white hair tie and find yourself feeling… a lot better. Less existential. More ready to accept the inevitable strangeness of a magic camping trip. Jade gets up to get dressed after a big thank-you hug and after figuring out how to put your suitcase _back_ you sit on the mega-bed on your phone while you wait for everyone else. You still have texts from that golgothasTerror guy that you haven’t responded to, and one from Dad.

October ??, ??:?? AM

Dad: Hello, June, and good morning! I hope your morning is going alright. I’m so proud of you for handling everything so far, as is Mr. Business.

Attached is a picture of a sleek tuxedo cat lying blissfully in the sun, the Mr. Business in question. You chuckle and send him a thank you text before turning to the golgothasTerror situation.

ectoBiologist [EB] began pestering  golgothasTerror [GT]

EB: hey, you texted me yesterday and i didn’t get a chance to respond! 

EB: i’m still not sure who you are, by the way 

GT: A pleasure to finally get to speak with you! I know my contact must have seemed out of nowhere but a mutual acquaintance mentioned meeting someone new and i was told it might be you.

GT: I actually need to go take care of some things myself before i can talk more but to introduce myself before i leave: jake harley jr runner and explorer extraordinaire! And with that i must be off! 

EB: oh, okay! nice to meet you, jake, have fun with… whatever you’re doing! 

golgothasTerror [GT] ceased pestering  ectoBiologist [EB]

Huh. Okay. You apparently have a mutual acquaintance, and if you're right about who it is then you're not sure if bringing it up right now is the best idea; you don't want to mess up the camping trip, and knowing about Jake contacting you might do just that. You frown, messing with your braid with the hand not occupied with your phone. It's probably not worth it. You can tell her later. She probably won't know. And if she finds out… you decide she won't because does this even have to _be_ a situation that you can “find out” --

The door to the room opens. Dave has the feather tucked into his book and his shades on as he walks in, much calmer than he was when he left. "Sup, June?" he asks.

"... got ready to go," you say and you cringe internally, you didn't mean to pause.

"Oh shit, I should do that."

His book disappears when he tosses it in no particular direction and closes the door behind him. Dave pulls his suitcase out of the air and gathers an outfit while you scrape together the best way to express your thoughts. "Are you… okay?" you ask. "You seemed pretty upset."

Dave hesitates. "I'm fine, Time and I hashed it out," he says gently. "Just some divine prophecy shit that isn't in my job description."

That’s not the whole truth, but he seems frazzled enough about it to warrant a thumbs up and no further questions. He disappears into the direction of the bathroom with his clothes on his arm, kicking his suitcase into the void as he goes. The light in the room has turned from deep orange to a light, airy morning, and when you take a breath, imagining it filling your lungs as full as they’ll go, your exhale turns to dancing curls of blue in the sunlight. Leaves on the wind dance in the window. You turn back to your phone.

None of the social media apps on your phone seem to be syncing properly which... isn’t necessarily a bad thing; content comes in bits and pieces and patches instead of per refresh and their dates and times are scrambled. You switch over to your time-keeping apps when you think of yesterday and the difference in the sun’s position between your departure and arrival locations. This is a different planet in a different dimension, they’re bound to have different timekeeping, right?

Yes and no.

You count out a minute and it’s the 60 seconds you’re used to. 7:59 turns over to 8:00. But the clock face has 25 sections instead of 12 and you get the sense that it’s for guessing more than precise measurements because there’s no minute hand and in between each number there aren’t half-hour lines. The top of the clock and your lock screen inform you that today is “the thirteenth day of the second month of fall” (helpfully abbreviated as “Fa M2 D13”) because in a world where you accidentally ate superpowers and your friends have horns, dog ears, and tails, no one bothered to name the months of the year? The seasons were enough? Wait, shit, when are their birthdays, then? When’s _yours_?

“June, are you alright?”

Rose’s voice snaps your gaze away from your phone. Her hair is done up with a pink scarf and the t-shirt dress she’s wearing has a pattern on it like some sort of primordial squid pit rising from inky depths, which looks cool as fuck on her. Her question doesn’t register until you notice the frown tugging on her lips and the way her tail is twitching, and for a second you’re not even sure you have an answer.

“Yeah,” you say. “Just thinking.”

Rose puts a finger to her lips, looking you up and down like she’s ready to launch into a 13-year-old-Rose style lecture about something something, blah blah blah psychology, but no such lecture comes. Just a beat of silence and then, “I’ll take your word for it.” A “for now” is embedded in there somewhere, you’re sure.

You’ll figure out the birthday thing later.

Jade appears from the bathroom a few minutes later and sits next to you and Rose, briefly interrupting Rose attempting to explain how a light spell works (you do not manage to understand how a light spell works), wearing the greenest overalls you have ever seen, which you compliment for being so. Her grin tells you they are definitely magical overalls. You don’t ask what kind of magic, because Rose switches from a light spell to showing you something you’re a little more familiar with.

“The hammer from yesterday,” she starts, “you seemed to be able to store that one with no problems.”

"The Hammer of Zillyhoo?" There's the sensation again when you say the Hammer's name, the rumbling in your chest and the lighting in the back of your throat. "That was the hammer, not me."

You remember the conversation you had with the Hammer, the eternal storms raging inside its internal space, how you two realized you weren't so different after all. Rose has her knitting needles and Dave his sword and Jade the rings she wears on bracelets and necklaces until she needs them, the Hammer explained, but none of those were like itself. The Hammer is an old, old force, left to slumber until your arrival woke it up. There's no _controlling_ the Hammer, only working with it.

"Don't doubt yourself, June, you can do more than you think. What if you tried to summon it?"

You almost tell her no, but… Giving it a shot wouldn't hurt, you guess.

You put out your hand and call to the Hammer. The call echoes across a sense that you don’t think is hearing, those same nerves that picked up on Jade’s song. Something calls back to you, something faint that grates against your skin like static electricity. You call out again, shutting your eyes tight. Your mouth floods with the taste of rainwater. For a second, the timing of a lightning bolt, you’re struck motionless by what it’s like to be afraid of the rain. Jade gasps and you open your eyes as a weight settles comfortably in your hand.

The last few bolts of miniature lighting race up your arm to disappear into the air, and in your hand is a claw hammer sized Hammer of Zillyhoo. You flip it on instinct and watch little clouds follow its path. Okay. "So I can do that."

“And it’s different from summoning your suitcase?”

“Yeah, it’s… more like asking permission to bring it over?”

Rose taps a finger to her mouth; the end of her tail is twitching like a cat ready to pounce (you’re reminded of Mr. Business). “Fascinating,” she mumbles.

“Can I see the Hammer?” Jade asks.

The Hammer says -- not in words, but the feeling gets across -- that it wouldn’t mind. You hold the Hammer out toward Jade, who takes it gingerly with both hands. It feels… weird? Seeing her hold it. Little knots wind themselves in your stomach but it’s not a full-blown panic, just uncomfortable, like seeing something that doesn’t look quite right. Jade turns it over a few times to watch the tiny, eternal storm clouds follow the cone on top. You make an effort to turn your eyes down to admire the rainbow-glitter crescent moons Rose painted on your nails last night and manage to feel a little better. You’ve had this hammer for less than twenty-four hours, you shouldn’t be this nervous about someone with a lot more magic experience handling it.

“The power the Hammer radiates is nearly overwhelming,” Rose remarks, breaking the silence. “To me, at least, though that may be a product of my lineage.”

“I think I know what you mean! It’s a lot heavier than it looks, too,” Jade says.

You… don’t feel any different? But you’re not a… What was the word Rose used? Bell-ringer? That. Neither is Jade, you guess, but she doesn’t look like there’s a headache building behind her eyelids like Rose does.

“Whatever you guys are feeling I don’t think is --”

The air glitches. You don’t know why that’s the word for it, but it is. The world glitches and your vision swims with blocks in colors you don’t understand, blacks too deep to be real and pinks too bright to be comprehensible and a cyan you’ve never seen outside of TV signal checks and ones you don’t catch because they go too fast. You press your hands over your eyes but they don’t leave and your breathing is frighteningly shallow. It must only be a few seconds, it can’t have been more than a few seconds, but it feels like minutes drag you behind them through a sensation that’s somewhere close to pain. It’s not your fault, it’s not your fault, it’s not your fault, something is pounding into your brain that this isn’t your fault, this isn’t anyone’s, you just have horrible, horrible timing ( _you’ve left your time out of this, haven’t you?_ ). A regular breath rips through your chest like a starting lawnmower and your eyes ache.

“Fuck,” you mumble, rubbing your eyes.

“I agree. Fuck, that was…” Rose takes a deep breath.

“That sucked,” Jade finishes for her.

When you blink the light away, the Hammer is nowhere to be found and Dave is standing in the middle of the room, looking at the three of you, dressed in a t-shirt decorated with music notes and… cargo shorts? Those are cargo shorts. The messenger bag slung over his shoulder has the Mini-Dave sticking out of it. “Is this what girls do at sleepovers?” he asks. “Mess around with ancient artifacts?”

“I believe usually we do breakfast first,” Rose says, some of her normal sharpness lost in her attempts to rub her eye without smudging the eyeshadow around it.

“Breakfast sounds nice,” Jade hums.

Breakfast does sound nice. Satisfied that your eyes are as recovered as they’re going to be, you mumble something to that effect and slide off of the bed. There’s some more hustle and bustle and gathering of figurines tucked into bags and someone handing you an over-the-shoulder bag, and the four of you head downstairs.

Surely this camping trip can only go up from that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> before we get to the endnote/next chapter (depending on when you're seeing this):
> 
> i am fully on board with art for this fic jfkldsa if you do i'll cry happy tears, just be sure to tag me so i can see!! my socials are in the end-endnote (or come join the discord and post it there!! or even both!!) and i may not respond right away but i will Always do it as soon as i have a chance. and if you have any questions that you would like answered :eyes: just me know  
> okay, i'll let you get on with everything lol


	10. > Karkat: Head into town

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An indeterminate amount of time in the future, Karkat gets one more reason to avoid towns and one more reason to freak out about everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> : 3c

SOME TIME IN THE FUTURE, BUT NOT MUCH...

You don't like going into town. People are loud and then have the audacity to tell you you're being rude when you have to speak over them to understand yourself, there are so many stalls that offer too many different things, and when you still occasionally slip up and use the royal "we" instead of a personal pronoun people look at you… not strangely, more amused, as if they've never heard a _chiyoni_ speak Common before, which is somehow worse. You do your best not to scowl at anyone who so much as snickers but a few averted eyes tell you you’re not doing a particularly good job of it. That’s fine, you don’t come through here often and you’re not cussing anyone out, you’re improving.

You’re here for supplies, you remind yourself. You’ll be striking out to somewhere important after visiting Kanaya and her House, you don’t need to pick up any new knick-knacks or even new books, as much as you wish you did. Just a tent to replace the one you lent another traveler, a sleeping bag, and enough firelogs to tide you over until you get to the woods and start collecting your own. That's _it_.

It's not it. You know it's not the moment you pass by the enchanter's shop and the owner herself waves you in. You could, technically, ignore her and move on. A lot of other people would. But you have been cursed with the reality of being Karkat Vantas, and that means you're not going to ignore her. So you adjust your bag on your shoulder and head inside.

“Hello, Karkat, welcome in!” the enchanter says as she closes the door behind her.

You’d ask how she knows your name, but by this point in your life, you just assume she probably met your dads and talked long enough for them to bring you up (which is not long at all, to be precise). “It’s, uh, nice to meet you,” you say, holding out one hand to shake.

The enchanter doesn’t shake your hand, instead just taking it in one of her hands and patting it with the other. “My name is Ms. Paint,” she says. “I’m dearly sorry to interrupt your shopping trip, but your fathers --” you knew it “-- left something interesting for you, and I didn’t want to risk missing you trying to find a hotel room later tonight!”

Oh, shit. “They left something for me?”

“Indeed they did. Give me just a moment, feel free to look around!”

Ms. Paint disappears into the back, leaving you and your bag up front alone. Her shop is smaller than others you’ve been in, but the smaller space and the multicolored chandelier give it a homey vibe you can appreciate. Magical focuses take up most of the space, including… wow, there are a weird amount of sets of knitting needle prototypes. A consistent client, maybe? Or a specialization? You guess knitting needles are a lot like classic wands and in a few towns now you’ve noticed wands making a comeback. Your eyes slide over the containers, drawn by some other force to… a table of action figures. Just action figures.

Except there’s something staring at you. From the table. Your instincts tell you to stay away but the pull of the gaze moves your feet before they can protest. The feathers behind your ears rustle and your muscles tense up as you approach the table. There are a handful of action figures here, some enchanted to move around and act out mock fights, some just sitting and waiting for some kind of command, and then one… one just looking at you. And it looks a lot like you, somehow.

It’s hardly ten inches tall, sitting with its jointed arms crossed, made mostly of porcelain. Its painted face is grumpy, with the same uneven haircut and sharp teeth as you, though its teeth poke out from its lips. The sweater it’s -- no, he’s, something in the back of your mind says -- wearing is large, black, and warm-looking, but the symbol on the front is a light gray instead of the red on your otherwise identical one. You lift him up, and you swear you feel a distant heart beating against your hands as you examine him closer. You’re not identical; his skin is gray and there are little nubby horns on his head instead of bright red feathers coming out from behind his ears. But that doesn’t make you feel any more reassured that this isn’t super fucking weird.

“Do you like him?”

Ms. Paint is standing behind you. You hadn’t heard her coming, and in your initial shock, you almost drop the little figurine and condemn him to shattering him against the floor. You save him just in time to turn around with the tiny figurine cradled in your hands to face Ms. Paint. Her question takes a moment to set in. "He's… a little strange," you say, not necessarily as a pro or con of the situation.

"You should take him with you," she says, smiling with the warmth of an oven baking bread. "I think he'll be important."

It's… not a request you can turn down. So you go to slip him inside your bag. He ends up tucked in a side pocket you always forget you have, crossed arms resting on the edge like he wants to make sure he has the perfect view to be pissed at everything. Some of the action figures _do_ move around on their own, maybe his default mode is simply to be grumpy about the universe. You're sure one of your dads would tease that you look like you're the same way, so perhaps it fits.

You shake off the thought and put on your best “talking to my dads’ friends” smile, the rough edges of your volume rounded down by leaning further into your accent. “You said my dads left something for me?”

Ms. Paint chuckles. She pulls something out of the air and a second thing before you register what the first even was. In her hands is a pair of sickles, just the right size for you. Each of the blades is sharply angled and multicolored, refined to a point you can hear as she motions to give them to you. When Ms. Paint sets them in your hands, the colors dance around the surface of the blades in the light. Their grips feel natural in your hands, enough that you give one a little spin to test their weight. Perfect. You’ve never seen them before but having the sickles in your hands makes you feel like you’ve settled into a comfortable pair of boots and tied them up just right.

“Holy fuck,” you say, louder than you’d intended to.

"They said they found them exploring an old city," Ms. Paint explains. “They thought you’d like them, something about a chance to learn something new?”

You give the blades an experimental swipe through the air, careful to aim away from Ms. Paint; you know what city she probably means, but if she doesn’t want to bring it up you won’t either. “How long ago did they pass through here?” you ask, because if you’re here you may as well figure out how far away they are; maybe you can meet up before you go camping.

“A few days ago.” Ms. Paint is tilting her head, watching as you flip one around and around your fingers. “Are they particularly magical?”

“My dads?” you ask, raising your eyebrows.

“The sickles, dear.”

Oh. You feel a little dumb, but you try to focus in on them anyway. No voices tickling at the back of your mind, no hands reaching out to yours, nothing trying to steal your consciousness from your brain and suck it into the blade. “Not really. Probably just artifacts from an old forge.” If you’re right about the city they went to, anyway.

“What an interesting find either way,” Ms. Paint coos. She pats you on the shoulder, smiling still, and says, “Well, I don’t want to keep you too long. Tell your fathers I said hello when you see them next!”

“It was nice to meet you, Ms. Paint,” you say, and you try not to show how many times you’ve been asked that same favor when you answer, “Yeah, no problem.”

She waves you out the door and you store the sickles away on your walk back to the supplies shop. Your figurine looks up from his place on your bag and a thought in the back of your head makes you think he’s trying to tell you something (except that’d be dumb, because he’s a doll and you are a conscious being with his own thoughts). No words accompany your feet slowing down. You speed back up and pretend he's not there as you look for supplies. You don’t need to be in town any longer than you already have.

The familiarity of shopping for supplies lets you forget about the figurine, about your new sickles, about the weird sensation that keeps crawling up your neck and ruffling your ear feathers. It’s just you and the store. Where even are the sleeping bags? They must’ve moved them since you --

You’re so focused on shopping and on not thinking about the string of weird events your brain is trying desperately to string together, in fact, that you nearly miss when your phone starts ringing in your pocket. Not buzzing with a text; weird, there aren’t many people who call you instead of texting.

“Karkat,” you say in greeting without looking at the ID, cradling the phone between your ear and shoulder while you look through a shelf of books you remember telling yourself you wouldn’t look at.

“Hello, Karkat, it’s Kanaya.” Kanaya sounds… ruffled. She doesn’t have feathers but it’s the best word you can think of.

“Is something wrong?” you ask. Your eyebrows start to knit themselves together. Why is Kanaya calling? You told her you’d be coming by soon. “Are you okay?”

“No, no not… not in the way you’re thinking. Everyone’s fine.” A pause. You hear the sound of something moving, porcelain against porcelain. “I just got this package today.”

“... okay?”

All of your efforts to forget are gone, trashed, and you glance down at the figurine in your bag; he hasn’t moved, but you get a sensation like this was what he was trying to warn you about. The feeling crawling up the back of your neck gets stronger, and you instinctively sit with your back against a nearby wall where there’s a gap between shelves. Your wings are your greatest asset, your dad’s voice tells you without prompting, and anything you can do to keep them safe is worth it. Are you in enough danger to justify the advice? That hinges on whatever thought Kanaya is chewing on.

“Did you happen to send anything?” she asks.

You suspect she knows the answer, but you give yours anyway. “No, I’m visiting soon, why would we send a package?”

“That’s what I was wondering.” A door shuts in the background. “But this package had a note in it to call you.”

“By name?” Maybe you are in danger.

“‘Call Karkat,’ is all it says. The note is typed, so I’m not sure who sent it.” The porcelain sound rings again and you hear Kanaya take a deep breath. “The figurine is… somewhat unsettling, even without the note, however.”

You pull your new figurine out of his place in your bag, holding him in front of you. His joints make the same sound you hear through the phone, and his face seems slightly less grumpy when you look at him this time; it’s almost… neutral. Like he’s accepted whatever he was upset about when you found him. You…

No. No, he can’t.

You focus in on the figurine, trying to pull into focus the bonds that tie everything and everyone together, the ones you’ve been so-called “blessed” to be able to see if you try hard enough. You hear Kanaya’s voice through the heartbeats in your ears, but you can’t quite make out what she's saying. Something is coming into view. You see the usual ones that branch out from you, the ones from people on the floor below you, the ones that zigzag across your vision from the spirits and energies that live in places like bookstores, one --

Not just one. It all comes crashing together and the figurine has seven distinct bond lines, one of which goes right from his heart to yours. He doesn't just look like you. He’s not even just _bonded_ to you. There’s something… unbreakably divine about the bond and its hushed red color and the way it beats, beats, and you hear the rush of stars through the space between space in its heartbeats without knowing how you know that’s what you’re hearing.

“Karkat, did you hear me?”

“The figurine has bonds,” is what you say instead of answering her question.

“So it is a figurine,” Kanaya whispers. “You have one too.”

If you weren’t already sitting on the floor, you’d sink to it; as is, you put your figurine back in your bag and curl your legs a little closer. “An enchanter gave me mine,” you say, and there’s no one around but you still feel like a little kid again, your dad struggling to recount the story of his childhood, his fear tangible enough that some got lodged in you. “She knows my dads.”

Your phone buzzes with a notification, and Kanaya takes a deep breath. “I sent you a photo of mine. I’m supposed to be asleep, I’ll…”

“I’ll call you later.”

“I’ll see you soon, Karkat.”

She hangs up.

Okay. It’s not but okay feels like a reset. You shut your eyes, one breath in, one out, you stretch your ear feathers as far as they go. And when you open your eyes the bonds are gone and you’re just sitting on the floor next to a bookshelf with a figurine.

You stand and go back to browsing the books as if nothing happened, picking up a few titles you’d heard about before your last camping trip. You don’t even look at your phone. Tonight you’ll be camping, and once you’re settled in for the night you’ll look at the photo of a figurine you already have an inkling of the appearance of. And by nightfall, Kanaya will be awake and probably in her silk moth habitat to make calling easier.

And then you’ll freak out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we'll get back to that later ; 3c  
> i just wanted to post some of the karkat content i've written lol  
>  ~~will there be vriska and terezi pirate adventure content later??? maybe. and maybe without a winky face or anything i genuinely mean maybe~~


	11. > Rose: Recover from whatever the fuck that was

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Any other day, Rose would power through such an unfortunate start to her morning and continue on. Today that's a bit of a struggle. Rose does her best.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so depending on when you're seeing this, my birthday is either today or it was recently (jan 24) and to celebrate!! here's a chapter about rose jfkldasf  
> either way, i hope you enjoy ^u^

BACK IN THE PRESENT…

Breakfast is a welcome change of pace. Hotel breakfast is cool fruits and soft bread spread with butter, hotel breakfast is sweet juice and iced tea, hotel breakfast is no strange magic or ancient artifacts or attempting to explain the only world you’ve ever truly known to someone who's spent less than a day in it, as much as you love that person. Hotel breakfast is enjoying your food slowly, picking through a small, simple meal as if it's a home-cooked feast while you listen to June talk about the cat her dad rescued and occasionally glancing at your phone for texts you cannot guarantee will come but which the thought of makes you smile. Maybe you should text her first. She's probably asleep but it would be there when she wakes up. Your phone beckons from the table.

tentacleTherapist [TT] began pestering grimAuxillatrix [GA]

TT: I know you're likely asleep or busy at this hour, but I was thinking of you

You quickly erase that text. You've spoken to Kanaya _once_ , and whether or not it's true that you were thinking of her the phrase has connotations you don't want to invoke.

TT: You're likely asleep or busy at this hour, but my friends and I are about to embark on our camping trip and I wanted to say some sort of temporary goodbye.

TT: Thinking back to yesterday, I believe I've seen your House before in a delightful coincidence. You mentioned it was in the area, yes? If so, I'll be sure to steer us past on our return trip and we could see each other then.

You hesitate. You're tempted to give her a more… traditional goodbye. The kind you don't share lightly because the Belltower believes in promise above many things.

TT: Until then, Kanaya. _Boeq se lon_.

tentacleTherapist [TT] ceased pestering grimAuxillatrix [GA]

(You’ve got it bad.)

You set your phone down before the ceased message sends. When you look up Jade is explaining Bec's Hunt to June, complete with illusory wolves bounding across the table, and Dave is stacking unopened creamer cups into a square-base pyramid. You’re surprised when no one calls you on texting, considering their needling about Kanaya last night, but maybe they’re as tired as you are. You decide not to count your blessings.

“...I don’t think I’ll go this year, though, since it’ll be your first winter!” Jade finishes her explanation of the Hunt just as you tune back in.

“Holy shit,” June mumbles. She’s watching the illusory wolves stand triumphantly on a stack of toast, howling in silent prayer. “Are you sure? I’d hate to make you miss out on something like _that_.”

Jade chuckles. “I’ve gone every year since I was like, nine, June, I can miss one to hang out with you!”

“Do you think Bec would let us all go?” Dave asks without taking his eyes off of his pyramid.

Jade considers it for a moment, but her lips are pulled tight and you know the answer before she says, “Probably not.”

Dave sticks out his tongue for a second to seem disappointed but one of the layers of his pyramid sways and steals back his attention. You agree with Jade; Bec has yet to meet any of you and you’re nervous enough about the sheer power he possesses to be fine keeping it that way. You can’t even bring yourself to say his full name out loud, yet, though Jade does on occasion. Grove lords his age are not to be trifled with, no matter your relationship with their wards, and you learned the hard way as a child that not many of them like the ancient magic you wield. Jade is one of your most beloved friends, and you would do a lot for her, but going to meet her guardian is one of the few things you don’t think you could risk.

You swirl your tea and a related thought occurs to you.

“Speaking of winter, though that’s still some time away, we could visit Mom to beat the first wave of chill,” you suggest. “She appreciates when we visit home on our birthday.”

“Oh shit, yeah!” Dave says. “She’ll be psyched to meet June in person.”

"You could join in the birthday parade if you'd like, June," you say, taking a sip of tea as if nothing is wrong with telling your mother that very bold-faced lie. June's birthday is in spring, of course, but if you’re right (and you usually are) by spring you’ll be... otherwise occupied. "There's a day between Jade's and ours you can borrow."

You watch the gears turn in June's head. When it clicks she laughs, hearty and a welcome departure from the gloom she was sporting when you got up. "I always forget that your birthdays are all in a row," she says. "I don't know about lying to your mom, though, wouldn't it just be confusing? I thought she knew my birthday from you guys sending gifts."

"I wouldn't be surprised if she was willing to go along with it, parties have always been one of her favorite pastimes."

Dave motions with a creamer cup in agreement. “We could also just celebrate that June is here at all!” Jade suggests. “Your mom makes good birthday cakes but I think if I had to eat three in a row I wouldn’t be able to get up for the rest of the visit.”

“They’re not _that_ sugary,” Dave insists.

“Dave, our mother grows her own sugar in the soil of a divine being older than most of us can comprehend, the only reason you don’t find them potent is the fact that we grew up on her baking,” you counter.

“Not to mention I didn’t grow up anywhere that had lots of sweet stuff! Wolves aren’t exactly known for their sweet tooths.”

June raises her hand and draws the attention of all three of you, interrupting Dave preparing another counter. “Your mom grows sugar?” is all she says.

“She grows more than sugar,” Dave says with a laugh.

Before June can ask what _that_ means, you clarify, “The soil in our home plane is nutrient-rich, plenty of bells start vineyards or bakeries to pass the time. Our mother got into food production after our siblings were born and grows what she can manage with her magic, from fruit for wines to sugar and wheat for baked goods.”

“And cats.”

“And cats, yes.”

“Like, a lot of cats. Not because she eats them she just loves cats.”

Your twin back-and-forth is smooth as ever.

June seems convinced (or at least intrigued) enough that you consider the matter settled and go back to finishing your meal. You can put your whole morning behind you. Reset your day with a nice palm-sized orange split between the four of you. The floor beneath your feet no longer rumbles and the sky stays pleasantly blue (there is no now-familiar woman cradled in your arms struggling with breaths she should not need, you tell your phone with a venomous gaze). You can almost make yourself believe that things will stay like this past the end of the year.

All of you wrap up your meals and set your dishes in the discard basket; Dave stays behind to put away his creamer pyramid while you, June, and Jade wait just outside the door. The sun warms up a bit of chill you hadn't realized was settled in your bones and energizes you like nothing else. You close your eyes, content to bask in it for a few minutes. It's the one thing you miss when you go home, this sun; the one that the Belltower provides for its children and their further lineages is a different, divine-less thing built for growing plants without the beckoning warmth of your summers spent top-side (so to speak). You’d even be tempted to give in to your elven blood and purr in the depth of your contentment, but such a thing would attract Jade’s immediate attention and if she notices she’ll undoubtedly tell June you can do such a thing. Why that, of all things, makes you twist with preemptive embarrassment, you’re not sure, but you don’t want to find out

“Hey, Rose?” June asks.

You turn to her, blinking the blue out of your vision. “Yes?”

“Where is this camping spot, anyway?”

And isn’t that the question.

You pull out your phone to show her where you have it marked on a map. The lake you planned the trip around is wide, and you know from passing by that it’s quite deep, but there are open fields on most sides and so plenty of space for camping. “We’ll be staying just south of it, but the lake is bordered on its east bank by a thick forest. There are rumors of Old One ruins in the area and I was curious to see if we could find anything,” you explain.

“Oh shit, I don’t think I heard you mention that!” Jade gasps.

“I must have left it out, then. It’s why Dave was so ready to change our fall spot.”

“What kinds of ruins?”

“The regular sort, you know, weapons and shreds of armor, the reports I’ve seen are unclear.”

You glance over. June has your phone in her hand, and for a second you feel a shot of your earlier unease when her eyebrows knit themselves together, her gaze uncertain and her shoulders tense. You can’t tell what’s on her mind and it’s… strange. Not something you’re used to. You don’t like the way the sensation lingers in the back of your mind.

“Cool!” And June just hands your phone back and gives you a smile. You give one back.

Dave strolls out of the building with his hands in his pockets. “I had eighty-four creamer packets,” he says rather triumphantly. “Probably could’ve done more but I figured we wanted to start moving before another storm hits out of nowhere.”

“I dunno, I think eighty-four is a pretty good number,” June jokes.

You hum in agreement while looking through your phone for possible routes of travel; walking would cut further into the timeline you discussed (you still need to tell June the timeline you discussed) than you want, but none of you have carts or mounts either. Jade can teleport, but she’s the only one of you four who can, and you remember a conversation where she told you that teleporting several people or over large distances puts her at risk of passing out and you’re not particularly keen on that. You glance sideways at June; something tells you that may be in her wheelhouse, as well, but… no. You shake your head. You’re dimly aware that June and Jade are talking about June’s recent acquisition of a motorcycle license but you’re not even sure where you’d _get_ a motorcycle around here. You heard of a gang somewhere east of here that had some as a gift from a fae patron but you doubt any of your three patrons would be particularly keen on or able to provide you with some.

Dave is leaning over your shoulder. He looks at your phone for a moment and says, “There’s a bus terminal at the edge of town.”

“... so there is.”

A bus wouldn’t be so bad, you suppose. You could start some knitting or read, maybe point out some of your favorite areas to June. Ask a certain grandparent of yours for some _damn answers_ because the visions that you saw in the wake of the Hammer’s disappearance linger in the depths of your thoughts. “What do y’all think?” Dave asks June and Jade for you.

“That’s okay with me!” Jade says at the same time June says, “So there’s buses but no cars?”

“Cars don’t fit in most streets,” you say. “Buses run outside of and between population centers. Otherwise, most people just… walk.”

“Or ride like, horses,” Dave adds.

“I usually just -- “ A towering white wolf appears where Jade was for a moment so short you’d think it was a trick of the eye if you hadn’t seen her do it before. “ -- and walk around like that. People usually move out of the way pretty fast!”

June’s eyes read “sick of asking questions” so vividly you give her a pat on the shoulder as you start walking in the direction of the bus terminal. “I doubt this bus is quite what you're expecting, either. It’ll be something new to experience that doesn’t require much energy from you.”

June huffs, which you think might be a laugh, and picks her feet up off the ground to float, arm linked with Jade just as before. And the four of you are off.

You push, one more time, your morning out of your mind. There will be time for planning later, you remind yourself.

… Maybe you’ll text Kanaya one more time on the bus. And maybe you have a project in mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so some context real quick jfklda!! rose's message to kanaya means "goodbye and see you soon," which is a promise that you're intending to see that person at some point (rose didn't specify a time) that the universe/the Belltower will hold you to!


	12. > Jade: Worry more than you should

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things could be going better and no one's more aware of that than Jade. Prophecies are the worst, death shows up in unexpected places, and Jade receives the weirdest phone call ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi everyone!! welcome back 2 an update jfkldsa  
> this chapter put up a fight but i finally won >: 3 so now y'all get to enjoy!! so. i hope you do!!

You can’t catch a break.

Specifically, you can’t catch a break from worrying about your friends. Dave getting worked up enough by whatever that feather meant that he just stared straight ahead at the mirror while getting dressed; Rose’s tension only worsening after what the Hammer showed her (but that you can understand, you don’t know what she saw but what _you_ saw makes your hands shake when you think about it); June swinging between overwhelmed and seemingly okay with the weird shit happening around her; you can barely spare a thought for the gnawing sensation in your gut that the figurines you picked up are more than just cute coincidences and that there’s something you’re being left out of. The walk to the bus terminal is oddly quiet for the four of you, set to Dave tapping out a tune on a translucent mixer and the sounds of the crowd around you. It’s not… you don’t mind silence, you’ve sat through a lot of silence growing up mostly around wolves and nature spirits, but this feels weird. You pull out your phone to try and find something, anything to get everyone talking when Rose finally says, “June, would you like to see how my wands work? They may help with finding a tool to concentrate your own magic.”

“Oh, sure!” And June’s smile seems genuine but between her and Rose there’s that something you’re missing out on, something one of them knows but you don’t.

You’re considering texting Jake to ask him if he’s heard of any news of weird activity wherever he is when Dave drifts to your side. His eyes dart back and forth as he whispers, “Rose has been acting weird, right?”

“Just this morning or recently in general?” you ask; technically, it’s both, but you don’t know which “acting weird” he’s referring to.

“In general.”

“Yeah, she seems… tense? Did something happen?”

Dave opens his mouth to respond, looks at Rose and June ahead of you, and closes it to pull out his phone. He gestures to yours with it. So this is _really_ dire, then.

turntechGodhead [TG] began pestering  gardenGnostic [GG]

TG: i dont actually know if something happened

TG: was kind of hoping you had an idea

GG: how long has she been acting weird?

TG: months

TG: since early summer

TG: idk im kind of worried about her

GG: i am too now :( i dont remember anything weird happening this summer that she mentioned to me?

TG: me either so it must be something that she did alone

TG: but yeah not a peep out of her about anything upsetting

TG: which i mean being siblings doesnt mean we tell each other everything but she usually trusts me enough to talk about shit thats been bothering her for half this long

TG: or fuck if not me then mom but she asked me what was up with rose so they must not have talked about it

GG: :/ do you think it was a bad vision? didnt she do something like that when you were kids? i think you guys told me about it.

TG: the avoiding thing?

TG: oh shit yeah i remember

TG: when she had that vision of the alternate reality or whatever and then my time book showed up

TG: that time she didnt say anything because it made her cry though she didnt just pretend nothing was wrong

GG: it could still be a vision, though! maybe something she wants to handle on her own?

TG: well fuck

TG: i dont know how to ask about that

GG: youll figure it out! its kind of a miracle shes kept it secret this long :P considering how obvious she’s being about kanaya

TG: haha yeah

TG: maybe whoever kanaya is will help her break the funk

TG: in the meantime help me keep an eye on her

TG: i dont want her to hurt herself

GG: of course, dave! ill see if i can get her to talk about whatever it is, maybe june could help.

TG: thanks jade

turntechGodhead [TG] ceased pestering  gardenGnostic [GG]

By the time Dave puts his phone away and you go back to hovering your finger over Jake’s chumhandle, the bus terminal is in full view. This is one of the simpler ones you’ve seen, consisting mostly of a rounded awning over some rows of benches and a map. Next to the map you _think_ is a whiteboard for written spells, but you don’t get close enough to check because the second you step under the awning the smell of death strikes you so hard you put your hand up to your face to make sure your nose isn’t bleeding. A death so distinctly _old_ you smell rotten bones and the dirt of disturbed graves and the rust on the gears of a clock long undermaintained more than fresh blood or a body in the sun. You gag on nothing and three pairs of eyes turn from finding a seat to looking at you. June floats over to you, hands nervously darting around with no real plan in mind. “Jade, are you okay?” she asks; you see Dave and Rose tense, looking for what possibly could’ve set you off.

You don’t have an answer right away. You hold your hand up to pause June so you can scan the area around you for something that could be emitting the smell. Your eyes meet… hers. A few seats down is a woman who looks at you with a big smile and rectangular pupils. The ram horns that spiral out of her head, holding back a dark cloud of the only hair you think has really deserved the title of “mane,” are keratin and bone in a way that makes your skin crawl to look at more than her gaze. Her clothes are simple, plain and bright red; she displays no signs of aggression but she radiates the smell of death and that alone makes her dangerous.

“I’m fine,” you manage, shaking your head and breaking eye contact. “Just smelled something weird.”

“I don’t…” June drifts off (vocally) and she turns to where you were staring, to the woman in red.

She waves. June waves back.

The woman’s smile doesn’t waver as she opens her mouth to talk. And the sounds don’t… come from her. No, the sounds skip your ears entirely and bounce around inside your skull, crackling like a radio in its dying days.

“Sorry about that!” she says. “I wasn’t expecting anyone to find this particular terminal today. Are you all looking for a doomsday, too?”

When she says “doomsday” a sharp, quick pain cracks your heart like lightning and behind you, Rose goes very, very still. Beneath the bench the woman’s shadow twists and writhes, and you’d compare it to snakes if snakes had cartoonish outlines of faces, all stuck screaming. You put June behind you on instinct, your claws and fangs growing, fur standing on end. The woman doesn’t seem phased.

“Ah, I see! Well, I’ll leave you to that, then.” Her smile is unwavering as she stands and brushes herself off. “The bus is here, at least. We can all get where we’re going.”

She winks at one of you (you can’t tell who in your unease) and is the first in line when the bus does, in fact, pull up next to the terminal. You all… keep your distance. June stays just behind you as you board the bus. Dave mumbles something about never seeing her again being too soon. Rose grips her needles like she’s afraid they’ll float away. Breathing does little to calm you down while you wait for the smell to dissipate.

The bus is expansive, as most are, and the four of you find a connected semicircle of seats arranged in a circle around a table like a booth at a restaurant, which makes you crack enough of a smile that you don’t look like you’re on the verge of biting someone’s foot off. Going off of some level of instinct June and Rose sit on the inside of the booth, Rose’s bag next to her and everyone else’s on the ground.

Dave breaks the silence first when he whispers, “What the fuck is that dude’s problem?”

He’s pointing at someone sitting nearby, a _chiyoni_ with bright red ear feathers and a big dark sweater, who’s glaring at the four of you as if he either wants you to move or recognizes one of you and is pissed about it (or, well, you’re really just guessing but whatever he’s thinking he looks angry). The bus starts moving and for a second, you consider just turning away but then he gets up and leaves, finding another seat somewhere further back in the bus, and you raise an eyebrow. Dave muffles a laugh.

That, as mundane as it is, breaks the spell of tension. Rose grabs some yarn from her bag and starts knitting, humming something under her breath; Dave pulls out a piece of paper and starts to doodle on it; June turns partially around to look out the windows. “Did you guys pass through here on your way to town?” she asks.

“Not this area, no,” Rose says. “This is somewhat new territory for us, actually.”

“I think we passed that big lake on our way to Mom’s last spring?” Dave offers. “The one we’re camping by.”

“There’s a gate to Bec’s grove around here, so I’ve seen it a few times! Never for long, though,” you chime in.

“Huh.” June seems… you’re not sure, actually; she’s been acting weird since this morning.

You decide prodding for information isn't worth it for now. The first time you stayed a few days outside of Bec's grove were weird for you, it stands to reason that June's feeling weird, too (you wonder what the Hammer showed her).

"Oh! Rose, you mentioned ruins, right?" you ask.

"Supposedly. Remnants of a divine battle, though I can't say I know which one. They could be interesting for you, June; they're from the same era as your hammer."

June tenses at the mention of the Hammer but the only thing on her face when she turns to face the rest of you is a smile. "That'll be fun!" she says. "Maybe the Hammer can help us find stuff if the ruins are as elusive as you guys keep suggesting."

“Can it even do that?” Dave asks, pausing a drawing that you think is a fish on a bike.

“It told me it can? Arguing with a hammer seems like a bad idea so I didn’t ask for clarification.”

Rose shrugs, pausing her knitting a moment to look up. “Perhaps the Hammer participated in the battle we’ll be camping on the grounds of. It _is_ a creation of Old Magic, the Old One who created it would’ve undoubtedly brought it to combat at some point.”

June makes a face that you think might be some form of “is it worth it to ask questions about that” but it passes and she says, “Yeah, that sounds right to me!”

You open your mouth to ask about the lake (the Old Ones stuff seems to be making June uncomfortable and you haven’t been swimming in a while, it could be fun, even in mid-Fall) only to be interrupted by a distant howl. No one else seems to have heard it, considering the bus driver doesn’t take their eyes off of the road and your friends are back to their various activities, so it must be… no, he wouldn’t come himself. Bec loves you but leaving his grove is difficult for a being of his size and power. A messenger, maybe? But where would they land to get to you?

… is there an unexpected dog on this bus?

“I’m gonna go find the bathroom,” you say instead. You give your friends a smile and joke, “Maybe you guys can brainstorm some stuff to do at the campground while I’m gone! I’ll try and think of some, too.”

You get a chorus of confirmations and Dave wishing you luck (you know he means it as a joke about the bathroom, but honestly you might just need it). You slip down the length of the bus, ears twisting in every direction to catch another signal. Nothing, nothing, nothing, but you get the sense that you’re getting closer; every step you take makes your skin light up with increasing intensity. You pass the _chiyoni_ from earlier who found a seat a few rows back but he doesn’t notice you behind the pink cover of his book; he doesn’t smell like what you’re looking for, so you let him go. A few other travelers who are just as uninteresting, the death lady who you pointedly avoid looking in the eye as you go, nothing, nothing…

You’re a few empty rows away from giving up when you find yourself face to face with a big, fluffy white dog. Not a wolf yet, still growing into her powers, but definitely the kind of fae dog you’re looking for. She bounds up to you and jumps on your chest, nearly knocking you over and making you laugh. You nudge her until she has all four paws on the ground and then, because how could you resist that cute face, ruffle her floppy ears and coo softly.

“Do you have a message for me?” you ask the dog.

The dog, as you expected, doesn’t say anything. She cuddles up to you, pawing at your knee to get you to sit on the ground. You do as beckoned, crossing your legs with your tail wagging as much as hers is. Once you’re settled, the dog flops down with her head in your lap, and as you scratch behind her ears the world around you fades to black and then to a green more vivid than the countryside you’d been passing moments before.

The grass hardly crunches underneath your footsteps as you take a short walk around the grove, the sun as distant and deep orange as always. You want to call out, but you figure he’ll show up eventually, and --

Bec is looking down at you, tail wagging, trees in his wake already toppled. You sprint over to him and give his snout a big hug as he dips his head down to your level. A fern brushes out of your way as your tail wags just as fast. “Did you just realize I was passing by?” you ask, giggling.

The not-words Bec uses to communicate with you tell you that you’re almost right. He did miss you, as he always does on your long trips, but he wanted to tell you something else, too. “Did something happen?” You still as you’re reminded of the death lady and her doomsday comment.

Bec tilts his head to the side. It’s not anything bad. You already know what happened, you just hadn’t told him yet and he found out. He assumes you were going to eventually?

You wrack your brain to figure out what he could be talking about; lots of things have happened recently that you were going to tell him when you next went home! Which thing was important enough that he sent a message on a moving bus? Bec lies down and rolls onto his side -- shaking the forest around you and displacing a few more trees -- when you huff and squat down, your knees against your chest. He was talking about June; he didn’t know your closest of your father’s children was even interested in crossing.

Your nose wrinkles at the specification of June being your “closest;” you assume Bec means your closest sibling, which he’s never called June before. If he means that Grandpa has another kid somewhere… well, you just hope they’re being taken care of okay. “It was only yesterday that she crossed over! There was a weird accident with the Divide and a spirit but she’s with us now!”

Bec licks your shoulder, gentle enough not to knock you over. True as that may be, he wants to see for himself. She seems more like you than any of your other siblings. Perhaps he can give her an honorary home among his grove? You fidget with a plant in front of you for a moment. “We’ll be around here again after we go camping! You can send me another messenger and I’ll bring June along.”

He likes that idea. The sun in the grove feels a little warmer, the air a little fresher. You know you should be getting back to the bus, but you take a few minutes to lean against Bec and relish in being home for a minute, even just in a projection. The familiar smells, the vividness of the colors, Bec’s slow, ancient breaths, the buzz of birds and insects and fairies through the trees above you. There’s something soul-nourishing about being here.

“I’ll see you soon!” you say with a final belly-rub.

Bec will miss you, and -- you stall for a moment, halfway to standing. And, echoes a thought in your head, beware for your friend, the one with the ancient magic and too much in her head. He may not like her patron, much, but he knows you care for her and knows you’ll be upset if her plan goes wrong. There is something bigger going on. Listen to the trees and the wolves, they’ll be at your side as always. Keep the little lives safe.

That last one comes across more forcefully than the others. You give Bec and pat on the nose and you hope it conveys that you’re doing your best.

When you finish standing up you’re on the bus again, alone in the middle of the aisle. The countryside passes by the windows, washed in mid-afternoon and just fast enough that it’s hard to focus on one thing or another. You stick your hands in your pockets and watch it fly by, thinking about Bec’s warning. Rose needing help you already knew about, sure, but what did he mean by “little lives?” Were you right about the figurines? But why would they be “lives” and not… you’re not sure. Maybe they play into whatever plan Rose supposedly has. You wish you could go back and ask him for clarification but opening a portal on your own is risky at best when you’re _not_ struggling with the vision from the Hammer and its implications for your magic (this is why you hate prophecies).

You know you need to go back to your friends. You don’t know how long you were asleep or if something happened and you just haven’t seen the texts. You take a deep, deep breath, feeling your human lungs fill to capacity, and start walking.

The death lady waves when you pass her again. You avoid making eye contact.

When you get back to your bus-booth, Rose has made a lot of progress on her knitting and June is showing Dave how to fold a paper football. You slide back into your seat and take a deep breath. Things are okay now, you tell yourself. You’ll make sure they stay that way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> now onto the next phase : 3 got some fun stuff lined up already!!  
> (and in case you were wondering, the death lady was, indeed, Aradia! in this universe, she's an ancient and deeply powerful grim reaper who loves her job and sometimes likes to fuck around with people. the vision dog was tesseract, the hiveswap kids' dog!! and the _chiyoni_ , tho i hope i left enough clues for this, was karkat! and we'll learn more about what that means for him later)


	13. > Dave: Try to pass the time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time is supposed to be Dave's thing, but passing the time is a lot harder than keeping track of it. Long bus rides are a force to be reckoned with. Friendly banter abounds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one has a comic : D!!  
> also it took almost a month jklfdsa sorry about that!! i hope you enjoy ^u^!!!

Jade is definitely not going to the bathroom. What she _is_ looking for is a complete mystery to you, but she normally would teleport for a bathroom trip so she must need to comb the bus for something. You’re tempted to pull out your phone and ask her what’s up (or ask Rose or June to do it) but… you’re all keeping secrets right now, maybe you’ll just let this one slide. It’s not like you plan on particularly upfront about your morning talk with Time.

“She brings up a good idea, actually,” Rose says. You can tell that she’s looking at her phone under the table but you don’t mention it. “We’ll be at the campsite for about three weeks, having a list of potential activities to fall back on would be convenient.”

“We’re by a lake, right? Are we allowed to fish there or will some sort of magic forest ranger come kick our ass?” June asks, looking more excited about fishing than anyone you’ve ever known.

“I don’t think anyone cares? But we also don’t have fishing equipment,” you say with a shrug.

June thinks for a moment, contemplatively tapping her chin. “I’ll figure it out.”

“I guess you could use like, a stick?”

“The hook and line would be more important, would they not?” Rose asks, raising one eyebrow without looking at you. “Without those, a stick seems rather useless for fishing.”

“Unless you use it like a spear!” June says. “But I think the Hammer will help me out more than a regular stick.”

You don’t know what happened earlier (yet?) but Rose’s nose wrinkles for a second that’d be imperceptible if you hadn’t grown up around her. Weird, filed away for later; you delay getting ready by the amount of time it takes to get into a “I HAVE NO INTEREST IN A FIGHT, CHOSEN DAVE” with your divine patron that you didn’t ask for (the fight or the patron, both work) and you miss out on some weird Old Ones bullshit that doesn’t feel like something you can just _ask_ about. Maybe that’s what Jade’s up to.

“I vote that fishing is boring and that we should investigate for ruins and sick ritual spots instead,” you say. “When you mentioned the spot Mom said there might be some Old ritual circles and I’ve always wanted to see one in person.”

“We wouldn’t be able to activate one,” Rose says, but it doesn’t really… seem like she means it.

June’s mouth goes carefully and unconvincingly flat. “Do you even _want_ to?”

You make a “so-so” gesture. “It’s on the list of ‘things Roxy has told me to absolutely never do,’ which means I’d either blow myself up or get dragged back to Central for her to yell at me about it, possibly both.”

That list is very long. On it are also things like “don’t mix alchemical components without thinking about the consequences,” “don’t blast magic songs into Dirk’s office without telling him” (which you did do, once, and only by sheer luck did you not get crushed in the resulting spell, marking that item the only one on the list added retroactively), “don’t try to hook up a physical clock to your soul’s internal clock, no matter how accurate it’d be,” and “leave the cat cloning up to Mom, Dave, she is an expert and you are not and have no plan to be.” … you were a bit of a menace around the building Roxy and Dirk work in as a kid.

Not that Rose wasn’t, but what Rose got up to when no one was watching her was more along the lines of “break into one of the world’s most secure libraries and follow the divine cats around hoping they’d tell her secrets” and “contacted the Belltower while in an area the Belltower’s influence was specifically not supposed to be” and “accidentally blew up Dirk’s workstation while experimenting with the lightning magic she had recently acquired,” so your much flashier and more numerous activities are what people remember.

“Roxy?” June asks.

“Our older sister?” Have you never mentioned her before?

Rose lifts her phone up with her tail, eyes still on her knitting, showing the picture Roxy insisted you guys take the last time you visited her and Dirk at Central. Her arm is around your shoulders, her longer horns just starting to branch off into antlers and her lab coat tossed over her shoulder. Rose is half-hidden in her hand -- she was laughing at the time, and you still don’t know at what -- and her other arm is wrapped around Roxy in a half-hug. Dirk you can _almost_ see, hiding in the background, his dumb pointy shades giving him away more than anything. “We have two older siblings, if we’ve neglected to mention,” Rose explains. “They moved out before we were born so we see them only occasionally.”

June reaches up, almost as if she wants to take the phone, but decides against it. “Everyone’s got siblings I didn’t know about, including me!” she jokes.

You chuckle, either from June’s joke or remembering the visit the photo is from and the shenanigans you managed to get Dirk caught up in, you’re not sure.

“Back on topic,” you say, twisting a summoned pen between your fingers. “So there’s fishing that may or may not require magic hammers, scouting for ruins, finding but not activating ancient runes, what else?”

“There’s a prime opportunity for magic practice,” Rose adds. “Considering that all three of us have different skill sets and we'll have the time and space, we should explore what kinds of magic you may be inclined toward, June. Not for specialization, I think that’s rather unnecessary outside of academic contexts, but I doubt we’ve seen the limits of your magic just yet, whether ones you personally possess or ones from your spirit benefactor.”

Probably the weirdest way she could have said that, but okay. June’s facial expression suggests that she agrees. Rose doesn’t seem to notice.

"Uh, yeah!" June says after a beat. "I don't… know about having powers that aren't from the spirit or the Hammer but it'd be cool to learn more magic stuff!"

“Only problem is where to start,” you point out. “Not saying it’s a bad idea, showing off how cool I am at magic is an opportunity I’m always down to take, but ‘magic stuff’ is a pretty broad category.”

Rose rolls her eyes but there’s no real annoyance in the movement (she doesn’t even roll her eyes when she gets annoyed, she just stares you down). “June can pick.”

June looks less excited at having to make that choice herself.

“Oh, shit! Also the figurines we picked up.”

You pull Mini-You out of your bag and set him on the table. His tiny sunglasses don’t budge while you move him around and that would be cool enough to be worthy of a fist-bump if the part of your brain that still hasn’t relaxed from Ms. Doomsday staring you down didn’t freeze you in the process of moving to manipulate his arms. He looks sick as fuck anyway.

June seems to have no such reservations and leans across the table to bop the Mni-You on the nose. “What are they supposed to do, anyway? I don’t think you guys ever explained.”

“Could be anything,” you say. “Probably not a lot because they’re big and that’s a lot of magic energy to keep stored in extremely specific figurines but maybe this little guy can teleport or something.”

“Why teleporting?”

“Teleporting sounds cool.”

“I know Jade can teleport, can you?”

“Um, sort of?”

“...Dave, you can’t ‘sort of’ teleport. Either it’s teleporting or it’s not teleporting.”

"It _looks_ like teleporting."

"So it's not teleporting."

“But it’s just as cool as teleporting so my original point still stands.”

Rose laughs, soft and mostly under her breath, interrupting the debate. You stick your tongue out at her (yes, you answer June's snicker, it's childish, but she’s your twin and also started it) and she keeps her eyes on her knitting as if she did nothing wrong. “Whether or not Dave’s time manipulation counts as teleportation, I doubt they’ll be capable of much more than standing on their own or simple commands.”

“I dunno,” June says, leaning on her hand. She’s watching Mini-You like she expects him to get up and do a dance or walk off the table or something and you get an urge to protect him. “Maybe that’d just be anticlimactic but I feel like they can do a lot more than that, for some reason.”

June leans down and pulls Mini-June out of her bag; she sets the figurine down with her legs crossed and her hands in her lap, just off-center of being next to Mini-You. They don’t react to each other.

“Shit, I thought that’d work,” June says.

You did too, admittedly. You remember the figurines moving while you were all playing music but whether that was proximity to each other or a reaction to the spell you have no idea. And considering you don’t entirely remember what song was channeling the spell, there’s no way you could reproduce those results. The sigh that comes out of your nose is more audible than you expected.

“Maybe we need all four of them,” Rose suggests. “My hands are occupied but I believe Dave suggested activating them as a ‘campfire game.’”

“We also shouldn’t go through Jade’s bag while she’s not here,” June muses. “Or leave her out of.” She gestures to the figurines on the table.

Rose gestures with one shoulder in a “seconded” motion. Even if you didn’t agree with them (you do, not just because it was technically your idea first), you’d be outvoted, so you slide Mini-You back into your bag and pull out another piece of paper to start fresh on. “Oh! Can I have a paper?” June asks. She has on a grin that suggests mischief in your future but you’ll take some Egbert Brand Mischief on a long-ass bus ride.

You pass her a piece of paper and return to your own. Your comic skills are rusty but that adds to their charm, you think, and you mostly just want to put your conversation with Time in a form that’s not as stomach-flopping as reading the slight shiver in their handwriting all over again. Even if you have to redo how you draw Time because if there’s one thing your memory refuses to hold onto it’s what they look like in your mind’s eye.

Though it’s not like anyone else has a consistent or solid idea either. No one’s seen Time in person since the Era Before Death and what you _do_ remember is talking to another Chosen when you stumbled across the temple in the woods about how none of the Devoted she’d ever spoken to could recall what Time looked like in their visions.

You go with a vaguely person-shaped figure with a clock for a head, but not a regular clock, a mirror world clock with gears and pumps and steam vents.

Your pen morphs into a multi-tip colored pencil (based shamelessly off of one Jake brought from the mirror world for Jade) just as something smacks you on the bridge of your glasses. You blink away the disorientation and see June chuckling and doing a shit job of pretending she’s not. On your paper is a folded triangle covered in blue scribbles you vaguely recall being called a paper football.

June mimes flicking something and says to your confused expression, “Flick it back, we can play Goals or something.”

“Does Goals include hitting me in the face?”

“Not usually, I just wanted to get your attention.”

“Well damn, you’ve got me there, that _is_ the easiest way to get my attention.”

(You aren’t actually mad at her, but deadpan humor is your specialty.)

June puts her thumbs and index fingers into two ‘L’ shapes and puts them together to make a mime of goalposts. Shit, wait, you remember what she’s talking about now; Mom used to use crumpled papers for it to keep you occupied while waiting for deliveries or at restaurants.

Your first flick sends it flying past June and off down the bus corridor.

Fuck.

“...I can show you how to make one?”

June is halfway through showing you how to fold a paper football when Jade gets back from whatever she was doing and sits in her seat. She looks more tired than when she left; she doesn’t say anything when she sits down, content to lean on her hand and watch June finish her paper football demonstration.

“Are you feeling alright, Jade?” Rose asks.

The distraction sends June’s carefully flicked paper flying into your face again. Zero for three, you guess.

“Hmm? Yeah, I’m fine! Just thinking,” Jade says, her grin full of teeth that look too sharp.

You look down at your comic and think, again, that she’s definitely hiding something. Instead of saying that, you pick the paper football off the table and flick it back at June, who catches it before it can hit her in the face with a triumphant grin. You make a game of moving the goals around and mixing in magic to guide the flying paper; Rose keeps knitting, still stealing glances at her phone under the table, and the longer the bus rolls on the more Jade looks like she’s falling asleep. Goals, despite the original reassurance that it would not include hitting you in the face, does dissolve into a game of trying to hit each other’s glasses after you get June in the left lense on accident and her next shot is _deliberately_ at your glasses, you saw the look in her eye! You shoot her your own that you’re pretty sure properly conveys, “Oh, it’s _on_.”

The game is interrupted when Jade does, actually, fall asleep. For just a second, because her head slips off of her hand and the motion wakes her up, but you accidentally crush the paper football in your hand in the millisecond you're worried she'll hurt herself.

Well, fuck.

Jade rubs her eyes and looks at the three of you, confused for a second. "I fell asleep," she says in a way that you think it was supposed to be a question.

"Are you sure you're okay?" June asks, her shoulders tense. "You seemed fine earlier, but…"

"No, I'm… I'm okay," Jade says, shaking her head. Her ears turn back, practically buried in her hair.

(You wonder for neither the first nor last time why her ears and tail are white when the rest of her hair is black.)

None of you look or feel particularly convinced.

The previously joyful mood tinged with unease, you decide to change the subject. You glance at your phone and you’d be surprised that it’s already 12:34 if you didn’t have an internal clock programmed into your soul. “We should… eat something,” you suggest. “Could be why you’re tired, Jade.”

Jade, her face buried in her hands, makes a noise that you think is in agreement but mostly just sounds tired. Rose’s eyes stay downcast on her knitting. June -- honestly, thank Time for June today -- gives you a thumbs up and a, “Pretty sure all we have is snacks.”

“What is a meal but a lot of snacks eaten within an hour of each other?”

“Usually more substantial than that?”

You shrug. “Agree to disagree.”

June rolls her eyes, still smiling, and leans down to put her bag in her lap. You get yours and sort through it, looking for snacks.

It’s going to be a long ride, though, so maybe you should hold back.

Eh, you’ll figure it out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what's up what's up if you wanted to see the og version of that comic without my text edits, [click this link!](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/654258807572004877/812883196798173194/CamScanner_02-20-2021_19.06.jpg) and to see a full-sized version of the comic with the text edits, see [this link instead!](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/654258807572004877/812895369951707186/chp_13_comic_text_edit.png)  
> also!! i'm gonna start doing little update art pieces, so if you wanna see those, join the discord : 3!

**Author's Note:**

> hello, hello, welcome to the endnote that should be the one that appears at the end of the chp count! i hope you've enjoyed my au, and wanted to let you know that if you ever have questions, don't be afraid to ask me!! this au is based on my original work, so sometimes things might need clarification!! (or you'll get a sneak peak, if i'll be answering your question soon ;) )  
> (also, guess what? [i made a discord server!](https://discord.gg/kkBHkBqEu2)* come join in, it's pretty low-pressure and just a place to talk about this fic and homestuck!)  
> and now onto your regularly schedeuled end note:  
> if you enjoy my work, i appreciate every comment, kudos, and even shares that i get! in addition, bcus you enjoy my work or if you wanna chat, see my other work, see any art i make as i post it, you can find me at [thegempage](https://thegempage.tumblr.com/) on tumblr or [@achillopal](https://twitter.com/achillopal) on twitter!! i hope you have a wonderful [time appropriate word]!!!  
> (also: do you like homestuck? do you like fantrolls? go check out [this fic about my fan troll/d&d character!](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24087106/chapters/57974941))  
> * if the discord link doesn't work, dm me on twitter and i'll get you a new one!!


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